PARIS: France is set to unveil legislation on Wednesday to increase taxes on global Internet giants such as Google and Facebook, putting it among a vanguard of countries seeking to force the companies to pay more in the markets where they operate.
"The amount obtained from this three percent tax on digital gross sales in France from Jan 1, 2019 should soon reach €500 million ," Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told the French daily Le Parisien at the weekend. Under EU law, Internet giants can choose to report their income in any member state, prompting them to choose low-tax nations such as Ireland, the Netherlands or Luxembourg.Under the draft legislation set to be presented by Le Maire on Wednesday, only digital companies with global annual sales of more than €750 million and sales in France of at least €25 million would be taxed.About 30 companies from the US, China, Germany, Spain and Britain as well as France would be affected, he said.
Despite the failure to reach consensus at the European level, France is still hoping an agreement can be reached globally by 2020.