[ti:Macron's Push for International Tax on Digital Services]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.16]The United States has threatened to declare tariffs of up to 100 percent
[00:06.92]on $2.4 billion in imports from France.
[00:12.16]The targeted products would include of bottles of champagne, handbags and cheese.
[00:19.52]The Trump administration said it was considering the tariffs
[00:24.40]after finding that France's new digital services tax
[00:29.20]would harm U.S. technology companies.
[00:33.56]French President Emmanuel Macron pushed forward
[00:37.72]with the digital tax over the summer, ignoring U.S. anger at the measure.
[00:43.92]The administration says the tax unfairly targets American businesses.
[00:49.96]The French leader wants to reach an international agreement
[00:54.56]on taxing large technology companies.
[00:58.08]It has urged U.S. officials to help reform taxes on businesses that operate overseas.
[01:07.28]Here is a guide to the digital tax debate.
[01:11.56]Large tech companies, such as Facebook, are able to report profits
[01:18.04]in low-tax countries like Ireland and Luxembourg,
[01:22.24]no matter where the money comes from.
[01:25.92]Macron says taxing such companies is a matter of social justice.
[01:32.36]The French leader campaigned hard for a digital tax
[01:36.32]to cover European Union member states,
[01:39.76]but faced resistance from Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
[01:46.56]After talks on a European Union digital tax failed,
[01:51.28]the French government passed its own digital tax in July.
[01:56.52]The 3% tax relates to revenue from digital services
[02:01.44]earned by companies with more than 25 million euros
[02:05.72]in revenue from France and 750 million euros worldwide.
[02:12.80]France is not alone among European countries in proposing a tax on big tech.
[02:19.72]Britain, Spain, Italy, Austria, Mexico and Canada
[02:24.84]have also announced plans for their own digital taxes.
[02:29.56]What does Macron want to achieve?
[02:34.28]His goal is to get a wider agreement on digital taxation
[02:39.08]under the auspices of the Organisation
[02:42.28]for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
[02:46.32]The OECD is a group of 36 mostly industrial countries, including the United States.
[02:55.72]At a G20 meeting in June, finance ministers agreed to set common rules
[03:02.36]to close tax loopholes and promised to work toward a solution by 2020.
[03:10.40]The following month, G7 finance ministers agreed there should be a minimum level,
[03:16.68]or smallest amount, of tax to stop countries from competing in a "race to the bottom."
[03:25.20]The United States once supported the new international tax system
[03:29.84]to cover many different companies.
[03:32.80]But officials say the U.S. changed its mind recently
[03:37.24]when traditional companies found out that they would be taxed, too.
[03:42.60]U.S. President Donald Trump has called Macron's push for a French digital tax "foolishness."
[03:51.32]The issue of digital taxation has led to a new trade dispute
[03:56.64]between U.S. and E.U. officials, as economic relations between the two turn ugly.
[04:05.36]Low-tax countries, like Ireland, also have expressed concern about the French digital tax.
[04:12.56]They say the measure would make it harder for them to increase
[04:16.80]foreign direct investment with the promise of low taxes.
[04:22.52]I'm Susan Shand.
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