German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed that her country is aiming for an international agreement before a European directive on the taxation of digital sector platforms on Tuesday 13 November.
"An international solution will be best. If this is not achieved, Germany will be ready for a European solution", she said in a speech on the future of the European Union to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
These statements are enough to reign in France's hopes once again. It proposes that the ECOFIN Council formally adopt the European directive on 4 December, but with an implementation date of end 2020 instead of 1 January 2019 (see EUROPE 12135).
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Monday that Germany supported the French two-step approach, but with some nuances: aim for an agreement at the OECD before summer 2020 and only apply a European tax from January 2021 onwards if international negotiations fail.
He remained ambiguous about the nature of the decision to be taken on 4 December. "We have committed ourselves to reaching an agreement in December on a clear position on what we will do if there is no progress at the international level", he explained to the foreign press in Berlin.
The German minister is therefore talking about a “position” and not about the adoption of the directive proposed by the European Commission to tax 3% of gross income from the activities of digital platforms.
For Olaf Scholz, the negotiations are far from being finalised. "We do not yet have an agreement on what should be taxed: what income and where? However, such a tax will only work if it is accepted by all other countries so that companies are not taxed several times", he explained. (Original version in French by Nathalie Steiwer)