Last Thursday, the French Senate passed a digital services tax, which would impose an entirely new tax on large multinationals that provide digital services to consumers or users in France. Digital services include everything from providing a platform for selling goods and services online to targeting advertising based on user data, and the tax applies to gross revenue from such services. Many French politicians and media outlets have referred to this as a “GAFA tax,” meaning that it is designed to apply primarily to companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon- in other words, multinational tech companies based in the United States.
上周四，法国参议院通过了一项数字服务税，将对向法国消费者或用户提供数字服务的大型跨国公司征收全新的税收。数字服务包括从提供在线销售商品和服务的平台到基于用户数据的有针对性的广告，税收适用于此类服务的总收入。许多法国政界人士和媒体将此称为“GAFA税”，也就是说，这项税的设计主要适用于谷歌、苹果、Facebook和亚马逊等公司——换言之，是总部设在美国的跨国科技公司。
The digital services tax now awaits the signature of President Emmanuel Macron, who has expressed support for the measure, and it could go into effect within the next few weeks. But it has already sparked significant controversy, with the Unite Sates trade representative opening an investigation into whether the tax discriminates against American companies, which in turn could lead to trade sanctions against France.
数字服务税目前正等待总统马克龙（Emmanuel Macron）签署，他表示支持这项措施，并可能在未来几周内生效。但这已经引发了重大争议，美国贸易代表团开始调查这项税收是否歧视美国公司，进而可能导致对法国的贸易制裁。
In response to these many unilateral measures, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is currently working with 131 countries to reach a consensus by the end of 2020 on an international solution. Both France and the United States are involved in the organization’s work, but France’s digital services tax and the American response raise questions about what the future holds for the international tax system.
针对这些单方面措施，经济合作与发展组织（经合组织）目前正与131个国家合作，争取在2020年底前就国际解决方案达成共识。法国和美国都参与了该组织的工作，但法国的数字服务税和美国的回应引发了人们对国际税收体系未来前景的疑问。
These unilateral developments differ in their specifics, but they are all designed to tax multinationals on income and revenue that countries believe they should have a right to tax, even if international tax rules do not grant them that right. In other words, they all share a view that the international tax system has failed to keep. up with the current economy.
这些单方面发展的具体情况各不相同，但都是为了向跨国公司征税，这些收入和收入是各国认为它们有权征税的，即使国际税收规则没有给予它们这种权利。换言之，他们都有一个观点，即国际税收体系未能跟上当前的经济形势。
The French tax is not just a unilateral move by one country in need of revenue. Instead, the digital services tax is part of a much larger trend, with countries over the past few years proposing or putting in place an alphabet soup of new international tax provisions. These have included Britain’s DPT (diverted profits tax), Australia’s MAAL (multinational anti-avoidance law), and India’s SEP (significant economic presence) test, to name but a few. At the same time, the European Union, Spain, Britain and several other countries have all seriously contemplated digital services taxes.
法国征税不仅仅是一个需要税收的国家单方面采取的行动。相反，数字服务税是一个更大趋势的一部分，过去几年，各国提出或出台了一系列新的国际税收规定。英国（SEP）和澳大利亚的反避税法（DPL）也有一些转移了他们的利润。与此同时，欧盟、西班牙、英国和其他几个国家都在认真考虑数字服务税。
France’s planned tax is a clear warning: Unless a broad consensus can be reached on reforming the international tax system, other nations are likely to follow suit, and American companies will face a cascade of different taxes from dozens of nations that will prove burdensome and costly.
法国的税收计划是一个明确的警告：除非能就改革国际税收体系达成广泛共识，否则其他国家可能也会效仿，美国公司将面临数十个国家的一连串不同税种，这些税种将证明是繁重和昂贵的。
0 条评论