European Commission To Delay Digital Tax Plan

The European Commission is likely to delay putting forward its plans for a digital levy until the autumn to try to improve the chances of a global corporate tax reform deal, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, July 11.

The European Commission had come under pressure from US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to shelve its digital tax proposal, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.

The levy, to fund Europe’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, would apply to hundreds of companies in the digital economy, the majority of them European, its executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager said this month.

She declined to provide details on which companies would be affected or the size of the levy.

Brussels was due to put forward its proposals this week, but had pushed the date back to July 20, the FT reported.

“The Commission is reflecting on how to support the historic G20 deal. In that context we are considering a possible postponement to the autumn of the detailed proposal on the digital tax,” an unidentified official told the newspaper.

The official stressed the final decision had not yet been taken and would be subject to discussion when commission president Ursula von der Leyen meets Yellen on Monday, the newspaper reported.

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