Digital services tax rate should be 5%, say MEPs

The EU parliament’s economic and monetary affairs (ECON) committee has suggested several amendments to the European Commission’s draft proposal for a digital services tax. If adopted the changes would:

• increase the proposed rate from 3% to 5% to ‘create a level playing field between traditional and digital companies and allow for a larger tax contribution from a sector which has been so far undertaxed’.
• broaden the tax by including supplies of digital content such as video audio or text through digital interfaces and online sales of goods or services through e-commerce platforms;
• ensure the tax should also apply to the sale and transmission of data collected through active participation of users;
• introduce a sunset clause for the tax to lapse with the adoption of proposals for a ‘digital significant presence’ or...