GAFA tax Donald Trump threatens France reprisals: US President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into the proposed French tax on GAFA.

US President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to open an investigation into the proposed French tax on GAFA, a process that could lead to the imposition by the United States of customs duties on French products or other measures retaliation. Targeting Google giants, Apple, Facebook or Amazon, this 3% tax on income will apply retroactively to January 1, 2019 to companies achieving a turnover on their digital activities of 750 million euros worldwide and more than 25 million euros on French soil.

In a statement made just before the vote in the upper house, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, considered that Paris and Washington had to settle their differences on this issue "other than by the threat." Bruno Le Maire recalled that France would waive its own tax as soon as an agreement was reached at the level of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) on the taxation of the digital, saying that this should incite the United States and other countries to accelerate work on an international solution.

The United States is very concerned that the digital service tax that should be passed by the French Senate this Thursday unfairly targets US companies, "said US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in a statement announcing An Investigation Under Section 301, which may last up to one year, is designed to determine the fairness of commercial practices to US firms. past China's trade practices and EU subsidies to Airbus Note that the ITI technology industry lobby, which includes Apple, Amazon and Google, called on Washington not to in response to the situation.

GAFA tax Donald Trump threatens France reprisals

"A tax fully in line with international agreements" for France

In the entourage of the Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire - in front line for almost two years on the hot topic of the taxation of the companies of the digital one - it was indicated to Reuters that the project of French tax on the digital giants does not derogate from international agreements and there is no justification for retaliating with commercial retaliation. This tax was finally adopted Thursday, by a show of hands of the Senate. It is "for us fully in line with international agreements", it was said the same source said Reuters. Recall that France had failed to adopt a similar device at European level earlier this year, already annoying Donald Trump.

"Countries are fiscally sovereign, so for us it is not appropriate to use the commercial instrument to attack the sovereignty of a state," it added. This subject of the taxation of digital companies is a subject now international. In early June, finance ministers of the world's 20 largest economies agreed to establish common rules by 2020 to end tax loopholes for "GAFAs" to minimize their taxes, according to the final version of the G20 communiqué. .

The approach approved by the G20, and advocated upstream by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), consists on the one hand to modify the method of calculating the taxation of enterprises, by distributing the taxation of enterprises between the countries where they sell their goods and services, even if they do not have a physical presence. And on the other hand to harmonize rates between countries, applying a minimum of taxation at the global level.

Thirty companies should be involved. According to a study by Taj, most are American - Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple - but European companies also enter the field of tax in the image of Zalando and Axel Springer and the French Criteo.

The law passed should be quickly promulgated, unless improbable referral to the Constitutional Council. A procedure called for by the Association of Community Internet Services (Asic), which gathers the giants of the sector. In a statement, the Asic asked Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to rely on the "Sages" to conduct "a rigorous review of a tax bill that we consider contrary to international law and stigmatizing for some actors. "