US Drops Digital Tax Demand, Opening Door To Global Deal

The U.S. has dropped a key demand in negotiations over digital taxation of technology companies such as Alphabet's Google and Facebook, lifting a barrier that had raised transatlantic trade tensions and prevented an international deal. From a report: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told her counterparts at a virtual meeting of Group of 20 finance officials that the U.S. is no longer calling for a so-called safe harbor rule that would allow U.S. companies to opt out of paying such a tax overseas, according to a Treasury spokeswoman. Yellen said the U.S. will now engage robustly in negotiations on both that issue and on a global minimum tax, the spokeswoman said.

The talks between around 140 countries on how to overhaul tax rules stumbled last year when Donald Trump's administration demanded there should be a safe harbor regime. Most other countries said they couldn't accept such optionality on paying tax. 'Today we saw a strong tailwind for a fair taxation of the large digital corporations,' German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said. 'My U.S. colleague Janet Yellen declared today at the G20 finance ministers that the U.S. will join in.' There is still some distance to go to get a global deal on digital tax. Beyond the issue of safe harbor, the U.S. and Europe have long been at odds over the scope of any new rules. There are also outstanding issues over the amount of profit to be reallocated to different jurisdictions and how to ensure and enforce tax certainty.

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