Three new European taxes on cryptocurrencies, digital giants and online gambling could generate €35 billion, €20 billion and €13 billion respectively over the 2028-2034 period, according to estimates by European Commission.
A document seen by Agence Europe, sent on Thursday 28 May by the institution to Parliament and the Member States assesses the potential revenue from the three additional “own resources” proposed by MEPs to simplify the equation of the post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The disclosure of these calculations shows the Commission’s determination to move quickly on the issue. However, the document does not change the political difficulty of adopting new own resources for the EU budget, which require unanimity among the EU27 in the Council of the EU.
The EU’s main executive body thus estimates that a potential 3% tax on certain revenues of large digital companies (such as Google, Microsoft or Amazon) would generate €5 billion a year across the EU as a whole, or €30 billion in total over seven years. The Commission departments based this calculation on the digital levies already in force in Italy, Spain and France (see Box 2.1 of the document).
“In 2025, our group commissioned a study according to which a 5% digital services tax could have generated €37.5 billion in 2026”, said MEP Rasmus Andresen (Greens/EFA, German). “The Commission could be more ambitious by opting for a higher tax rate and by also including e-commerce and cloud services”, he further argued. Also his group’s coordinator on the Committee on Budgets, Mr Andresen nevertheless said he was pleased that the Commission “is finally moving towards the additional new own resources requested by Parliament” in its interim report on the next MFF.
A similar view was expressed by French MEP Fabienne Keller, from Renew Europe. “It is incomprehensible that digital companies do not contribute like others to the financing of public goods, hospitals, roads, schools...”, she argued, saying she believed the introduction of such a European tax was likely, despite the risk of US reprisals that worries several EU Member States.
“Targeting the main American platforms - such as streaming giants, online marketplaces and cloud services - would send a strong message: trade conflicts harm everyone”, added Rasmus Andresen.
The Commission has also assessed the revenue from a possible tax on capital gains linked to cryptocurrencies within a broad range, between €1 billion and €2.4 billion a year. The document acknowledges the difficulty of such a calculation because of the lack of available data on this market.
“The proposed tax on this extremely risky activity, which gives rise to negative social effects, violence and the ruin of individuals, is all the more interesting because it would also make it possible to gain at least some knowledge of this opaque market”, Fabienne Keller approved.
Lastly, a 3% tax on the net turnover of the online gambling sector could generate around €1.9 billion a year. However, Malta will have to be convinced. Thanks to its attractive tax regime, the island state is in fact home to the main online gambling sites from around the world.
See the Commission document: https://aeur.eu/f/m3x
See the study commissioned by the Greens/EFA group: https://aeur.eu/f/m3y (Original version in French by Clément Solal)