Federal government is planning a fight against internet giants: tax comes!

Federal government is planning a fight against internet giants: tax comes!

Deutschland - The federal government plans to submit a tax for large international Internet companies to reduce the technological dependencies of US companies and to promote competition in the digital sector. This reports t-online . A tax rate of ten percent on the advertising revenues of these corporations is planned. The aim is to increase the financial burden of these companies in order to strengthen the media market and diversity in the field of cultural products.

The Minister of State for Culture and Media, Wolfram Weimer, has already prepared discussions with representatives of large internet platforms such as Google and Meta. In the context of an interview with the stern emphasized the urgency of this measure, around monopoly-like To counteract structures that restrict the competition and endanger the diversity of media. Weimer was optimistic that there is a uniform position between the Union, the SPD and the Greens in terms of this problem.

Austria as a model

The planned tax is based on the Austrian model, where a digital tax of five percent has been introduced to online advertising services that is regulated in the Digital Tax Act (DISTG) since 2020. According to usp.gv.at so far has not resulted in any noticeable price changes for end customers, but led to falling profits at the corporations. In this context, the federal government sees the opportunity to introduce a so-called platform soli.

The initiative for the introduction of this tax is part of the Union and SPD coalition agreement, which provides for the examination of such a tax. Weimer pointed out that the large platforms in Germany make significant profits, but pay only small taxes and at the same time invest too little in the German market.

Law preparation and dialogue with stakeholders

A law to implement the levy is already being prepared in concrete terms. Weimer emphasizes that alternative solutions with the platform operators should also be sought. Talks at the top level are planned to discuss and probe various approaches. This is intended to maintain both compliance with the competitive conditions and the protection of the media diversity.

With the aim of levy, the Federal Government hopes to establish a fairer tax system that adequately takes into account the digital economy. Many of the existing regulations in the international tax system are based on physical presence and often create distortions of competition that enable large corporations to avoid taxes.