MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th October, 2020) The Group of Twenty (G20) countries are aiming to reach an agreement on digital taxation, which may significantly affect revenues for big tech giants, such as Google and Facebook, by the middle of 2021 instead of the end of this year, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said on Wednesday.
"While we have agreed at the beginning of the year that we will reach an agreement by the end of 2020, unfortunately, COVID-19 came ... We also agreed that we will reach an agreement on digital taxation by mid-2021," Al-Jadaan said at a press conference following the G20 finance ministers meeting.
The G20 countries had to put off the digital tax plans due to the post-coronavirus recovery efforts, but at their meeting on Wednesday, the officials managed to agree on basic principles under which a consensus would be reached, the minister explained.
The potential digital taxation agreement seeks to tax big tech giants that avoid paying duties in jurisdictions where they generate income by locating their operations in low-tax countries, such as Ireland or Luxembourg.
While France and the United Kingdom have been vocal proponents of the digital tax, the United States has opposed those plans, saying that they unfairly target the US tech giants. The US opposition has reportedly stalled the negotiations as Washington vowed to impose retaliatory duties on those who apply taxes on its digital giants.
