PARIS: France and Germany intensified calls on Wednesday for U.S. technology giants to pay more tax in the European Union, with Paris saying the new bill could amount to billions of euros. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he wanted the EU to adopt new rules on taxing digital companies next year, while in Germany, the two parties seeking to form the next government said they wanted a new Europe-wide corporate tax system to stamp out multinational tax avoidance. It’s not possible, not sustainable, that we tax manufacturing industries while billions in profits earned by GAFAs on European soil evaporate,” Le Maire said, citing an acronym commonly used in Europe top describe tech giants including Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.com Inc. We want a fair taxation of digital giants that creates value in Europe in 2019,” he said in an interview with Reuters and a small group of European newspapers. U.S tech groups such as Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, and Apple use complex intra-group arrangements to pay low single-digit tax rates on profits derived from European customers. Frequently these strategies hinge on the co-operation of smaller EU nations like Luxembourg which sometimes take a light touch approach on tax to help encourage inward investment.
Pakistan Customs seizes Rs158m worth of smuggled phones, liquor at Sost Dry Port
SOST: Pakistan Customs has seized contraband worth an estimated Rs158 million in two intelligence-based operations at Silk Route Dry Port,...
