US president Donald Trump has taken another tilt on Twitter against French plans to introduce a 3% digital tax on businesses with global digital revenue of EUR 750m ($834.1m) and revenue in France of more than EUR 25m ($27.8m).
On 26 July 2019 Trump tweeted: “France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies. If anybody taxes them, it should be their home Country, the USA. We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on Macron’s foolishness shortly. I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!”
The US government has already begun an investigation into the French digital services tax after claiming that it ‘unfairly targets American companies’. France is not alone in planning to introduce such a tax in 2020. A similar tax, at 2%, is also on the cards in the UK.
On 27 July addressing the threat of increased tariffs on French wine, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire was reported by Reuters as telling a press conference: “It’s in our interest to have a fair digital tax… Please do not mix the two issues. The key question now is how we can we get consensus on fair taxation of digital activities.” Le Maire said: "There is no desire to specifically target American companies.”
