Italy joins in digital taxation plans

Italy is putting forward plans for a digital sales levy as a European crackdown on how large US internet groups pay tax gathers momentum, reports the Financial Times. “The upper house of the Italian parliament, the senate, will this week consider legislation that would impose a so-called ‘equalisation tax’ from July. The measure would force Italian buyers of services such as advertising on Google or Facebook – ‘intangible digital products’ – to withhold 6% of the value of the purchase and pay it instead to the Italian treasury.” The measure has the backing of the ruling centre-left Democratic party (PD). “Italy wants to give a political push to this, we are not afraid,” Massimo Mucchetti, the president of the senate industry committee and a PD lawmaker, said. “This is an attack on tax avoidance,” he added. Transactions of less than €30 and purchases by individuals would be exempt.  The Italian parliament’s move comes two months after France proposed its own tax on digital sales, raising pressure on the EU to agree a common stance. Paris, Rome, Berlin and Madrid have said they will press ahead with their own country-by-country efforts if the EU does not move quickly enough as a bloc. Read more 

• Tuesday, 21 November 2017