Spain’s acting economy minister revealed that Madrid will proceed with plans to implement a tax on large internet and technology firms, TechXplore reports.
According to Nadia Calbino, the government’s "intention is to put (the tax) back on the table as soon as there is a government."
"The idea would be to find a global solution because it is a global problem,” she said, adding that however, since this has not been made possible, “we must take action because the impact on our economies can not be minimised.”
This follows France’s recent decision to introduce a tax on digital giants, making it the first major economy to do so.
The new law is known as the GAFA tax, being an acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, and is targeting a taxation gap that has enabled internet giants to escape paying a large chunk of their taxes in profitable countries because their legal base is in lower rate EU states.
When asked if the United States would impose sanctions on Spain for proceeding with the tax, Calvino said it was “very risky” to forecast what would happen next because of Washington's "erratic behaviour".
She went on to say that US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin seemingly "sees the need for a global solution, he is very interested in finding a format for taxation that is fair for big internet firms."
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