LONDON: Tech giants could see their UK tax bills multiply by hundreds of millions of pounds a year if the Government follows French proposals to introduce a digital levy on revenues.
Google paid £36m in tax last year under current rules, with Facebook charged £5.1m. But if the Government follows through on proposals to tax revenues, not just profits, this could hit the companies far harder.
Google said it had UK revenues of $7.8bn in 2016, or £5.6bn, so a 5pc tax would take £280m – more than seven-times larger than its current bill. Facebook generated £1.8bn of UK revenue in 2016, according to eMarketer, which would result in a £90m charge, more than 17-times bigger.
