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The United States warns Spain that it is studying all its options in response to the 'Google rate'

2021-01-15T13:34:43.260Z


The Office of the Commercial Representative concludes that the tax "discriminates" against their companies


The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has concluded that taxes on digital services approved in Spain, Austria and the United Kingdom are discriminatory for US companies and incompatible with the principles of international taxation for which, despite not taking any specific action at this time, will continue to evaluate all available options.

"Each of these taxes on digital services discriminates against US companies, is incompatible with current principles of international taxation, and restricts US trade," he says.

In the specific case of the

Spanish

Google tax

, it states that, due to its structure and operation, it discriminates against US digital companies, both for the selection of services covered and for the income thresholds, stating that the tax “is not reasonable because it is incompatible with international principles on taxation ”, in addition to taxing or restricting US trade.

In this sense, the investigation indicates that the income threshold established for the Spanish tax of 750 million euros serves to discriminate by nationality against US companies, since with this limit a total of 60 companies would be affected, of which 34 They would be from the United States and only two Spanish, while applying a threshold of about 50 million euros, 249 companies would be affected, including 20 Spanish and 80 Americans.

Likewise, it concludes that the selection of services covered by the fee, such as advertising and

online

intermediation

or data transmission, indicates that the fee is directed against leading US companies in these market segments to which it applies "tax treatment special and unfavorable ”.

Despite not taking any action at the moment, the US government agency warns that it "will continue to evaluate all available options", which opens the door to retaliation such as the imposition of tariffs on Spanish products, although it will be necessary to see if there is any change of position with the new Joe Biden Administration.

The United States launched last June an investigation into the digital rates adopted by Austria, Spain and the United Kingdom along with those of seven other jurisdictions.

In this sense, on January 6, the Office of the Trade Representative announced its conclusions on the digital taxes of India, Italy and Turkey, while it continues to evaluate those of Brazil, the Czech Republic, the European Union and Indonesia, which are not yet in vigor.

The

Spanish

Google rate

will come into force this Saturday - although the first settlement has been postponed to the second quarter - and will tax those companies with total annual revenues of at least 750 million euros and with revenues in Spain of more than 3 million euros. euros, targeting online advertising services, online intermediation services and the sale of data generated from information provided by the user during their activity or the sale of metadata.

Although the Treasury had planned an initial collection of about 1,200 million euros, later it lowered it to 968 million.

The Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Ángel Gurría, recently criticized the unilateral introduction by some countries of digital taxes, warning that this route could unleash reprisals by others, pushing back the situation " not just a tax war, but a trade war that would be bad for everyone. "

However, the Paris-based body has not yet managed to reach an international agreement to adopt a common solution, and it will not be able to do so as long as the US continues to refuse to participate in the negotiations.

The Spanish Government ensures that the rule that will come into force this weekend will be "transitory" until a global or European regulation is approved within the framework of the OECD or the G20.

Source: elparis

All business articles on 2021-01-15

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