16/10/19

AUSTRIA: France and Italy Join on Tax for Tech Giants.

As published on news.bloombergtax.com, Wednesday October 16th, 2019.

Italy will join France and Austria in taxing tech giants such as Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. starting in 2020, the government said Oct. 16 in its budget plans.

Parliament had already adopted a 3% tax as part of its 2019 budget, but previous Minister of Economy and Finance, Giovanni Tria, wanted a Europe-wide agreement before issuing the necessary implementing legislation.

The original tax would have applied to revenue from online advertising, online sales, and data processing for companies with global annual revenue of at least 750 million euros, and at least 5.5 million euros from digital services provided in Italy.

The 2020 Draft Budgetary Plan also includes numerous measures aimed at fighting tax evasion, including tougher penalties for tax evaders and sanctions for businesses that don’t accept credit and debit card payments.

All eurozone countries submit a Draft Budgetary Plan annually to the European Commission under the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact. The European Commission must approve Italy’s plan before it goes before Parliament.