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An EU levy on digital giants is coming if the U.S. withdrawal from global talks on taxation makes it impossible to get an international accord, the European Commission’s tax czar said Thursday.
“We need an understanding in the global negotiations,” Paolo Gentiloni tweeted after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told his French, British, Italian and Spanish peers that Washington was pulling out of negotiations at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
“If the American stop makes it impossible, a new European proposal will be put on the @EU_Commission table,” the Italian added.
The Brussels executive has repeatedly warned that it would return with an EU levy should OECD negotiations fail to provide a global solution for taxing multinational companies by year-end.
Mnuchin’s decision to walk away puts the OECD talks in serious jeopardy, paving the way for more transatlantic tensions.
Washington said earlier this month that it was launching trade probes into countries that introduce digital services taxes that unfairly target U.S. companies. Trade tariffs could follow.
France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has already pledged to push on with his own national levy, criticizing Mnuchin’s “provocation to all OECD partners.”....