French tax on internet giants could yield €500m a year
Finance minister says the 3% tax will target about 30 companies
Paris — A 3% tax on the French revenue of large internet companies could yield €500m a year, French finance minister Bruno le Maire says. He told Le Parisien newspaper the tax is aimed at companies with worldwide digital revenue of at least €750m and French revenue of more than €25m. The tax would target about 30 companies, mostly American, but also Chinese, German, Spanish and British, as well as one French firm and several firms with French origins that have been bought by foreign companies, he said. The paper listed Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (the four so-called GAFA companies) but also Uber, Airbnb, Booking and French online advertising specialist Criteo as targets. “A taxation system for the 21st century has to be built on what has value today, and that is data,” Le Maire said. He added it is also a matter of fiscal justice, as the digital giants pay some 14 percentage points less tax than European small-and-medium sized companies. Fairer taxes are a key demand of the “...
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