TECH

Tax on Internet giants, a priority in the financial G20
Gathering this weekend in Japan, the top finance ministers of the G20 countries agree on the urgency of reforming the tax on Internet giants - known as Gafa - even if there is disagreement on how to do so.
The financial G20 commissioned the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to establish a global tax system for large Internet companies, or Gafa (acronym for Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple), which are often criticized for their tax optimization practices.
"We have to hurry," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told a conference on international taxation ahead of the official start of the G20 in Fukuoka, southwest Japan.
"The reality is that the digitization of the economy and large digital companies make considerable profits thanks to the valuation of their data," although they pay their taxes in countries with more favorable rates, the minister told AFP.
Citizens perceive the current system "as a great injustice," said British Finance Minister Philip Hammond.

- "Stimulus" -
The idea is to collect the taxes of Internet multinationals not in countries where they have their offices and physical presence, but in the place where they record their income.
OECD Secretary-General Ángel Gurría celebrated the "significant advances" after last week's adoption by 129 countries of a road map that opens the way "by 2020".
There are, however, strong disagreements over the methods of application.
While acknowledging the urgency of the issue, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it was a "complicated issue" and that the technology sector should not be "discriminated against."
Mnuchin expressed his disagreement over the decision by France and the United Kingdom to unilaterally levy Gafa companies.
These two initiatives "concern" the United States, said the secretary, but Paris and London "have the merit of having them proposed, in the sense that they have generated an urgency", being a "stimulus" to address the problem.
For Oxfam, this meeting is a "unique opportunity to end the tax evasion of large multinationals," a statement said before the ministerial meeting.
Trade tensions between the United States and its partners are another priority on the G20 agenda, although Washington and Mexico have agreed on tariffs and migration has softened the situation.
In relation to China, the United States left the door open for resumption of negotiations, Mnuchin said.
"If we want to get back to the table and sign on the terms we were negotiating, we would be fine, otherwise, as the president said (Donald Trump), we will continue with the tariffs," he warned. afp.com