The EU finance ministers of Germany and France have agreed on a new draft proposal for the taxation of IT companies and presented it to the European Council today. This proposes levying a future digital tax on the basis of advertising revenues. The final deliberation on the new draft is scheduled for the beginning of next year.
On this subject Oliver J. Süme, Chair of the Board of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, has this to say:
“The plans currently under discussion at EU level to tax digital companies are misguided. The plans of the EU Commission explicitly discriminate against the digital industry by wanting to impose a separate tax on online advertising. We need a coherent tax system that applies the same fair and comprehensible rules to all market participants. The planned reforms should be deliberated upon intensively; a rash and premature decision at European level is the wrong approach; corresponding reforms would have to be carried out at an international OECD level.”
Süme is particularly critical of the negative effects of such special taxation on the digitalization of industry and SMEs in Germany. “Germany already has a lot of catching up to do here and a further delay in the digitalization of companies would have a negative impact on growth and the industry location as a whole,” states Süme. Such special taxation would also run counter to the realization of the European Digital Single Market.
