EU wants to tax internet companies' turnover

The European Union wants to change the taxation for internet companies like Google and Amazon. Instead of focusing on their profit, the EU wants to target their turnover.

Avoid tax evasion

French Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire, tabled the proposal and is allegedly already backed by his colleagues in Spain, Germany and Italy. The proposal will be discussed next Friday, when every European Finance Minister comes to Estonia. They will all need to agree before this can be turned into new legislation.

The new system is designed to make sure that internet companies pay more to the European Union in the future. Currently, every company pays its share based on its profit, but that profit is often artificially lowered through elaborate schemes. This way, their taxes are low as well. Europe already warned Amazon, Starbucks, Google and Apple about this type of behaviour, Twinkle writes.

The new legislation would be a next step in stricter rules for eCommerce activities within the European Union’s borders. There have been several investigations into price deals or abuse of power already, with Google recently receiving a record fine because of it. On the other hand, the European Union is still trying to create a single digital market, removing borders between different member states as much as possible.