On Tuesday 26 September, the American Chamber Commerce (AmCham) warned the EU against its attempt to move forward alone in the taxation of the digital economy.
AmCham highlights the damage that new measures seeking to tax companies' digital activities could cause to the competitiveness of the EU and to international tax efforts. The idea of a turnover tax officially put forward by ten countries “can substantially reduce the amount of company profits available for investment and reinvestment, with a negative effect on jobs and growth”, AmCham states in a press release. It would “penalise start-ups, low-margin companies and loss-making companies because they do not seek to tax the value created”, it adds. “The reason for taxing profits rather than turnover is so that only value created by the company in excess of costs incurred is taxed (thus, not taxing revenue required to keep businesses solvent and growing)”, the organisation concludes. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)