Digital taxation New rule proposal Targeting large IT companies, etc. OECD October 9 20:40
The OECD = Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has drafted a new rule regarding taxation on large IT companies that make profits by exchanging data across borders.
Allow a certain percentage of corporate profits to be taxed according to the amount of sales in each country.
Big IT companies such as Google and Amazon make profits by exchanging data and services across borders, but it has been pointed out that taxation is not possible in countries that do not have headquarters or factories. .
The OECD has compiled a new tax rule proposal for IT companies and other global companies that are developing businesses mainly for consumers, so that tax can be applied according to the actual situation.
According to this, a certain percentage excluding general profits obtained from sales of manufactured products, etc. is regarded as profits generated worldwide by the brand value and customer data of the company. In addition, we will allow each country to tax this profit according to the amount of sales in that country.
The OECD intends to further examine the detailed mechanism, such as what percentage of taxable profits will be made and whether taxation will be differentiated according to the degree of digital technology utilization.
These proposals will be reported to the G20 = financial ministers and central bank governors' meeting in Washington next week, and will be discussed in an international framework that will be created in approximately 130 countries and regions.
Conventional rules cannot tax enough for "GAFA"
Behind the consideration of new taxation rules, there is a problem awareness that a large IT company, also called “GAFA”, is making a profit, and the conventional rules cannot be taxed sufficiently.
The rules so far have been based on whether the country has a headquarters, branch offices, and physical bases such as factories, and whether or not taxation is possible. However, even if there is no base in that country, such as music distribution services and online shopping, for example, companies that make profits by exchanging data across borders have not been taxed sufficiently.
For this reason, the OECD is taking the lead in creating an international framework in which 134 countries / regions participate, and discussions are underway with the aim of bringing together specific proposals for new tax rules within the next year.
In previous discussions, the UK has argued that the rules will be focused on IT companies, while the US, which has many IT companies in its own country, has been argued to cover a wider range of industries.
In Japan, Keidanren, a large group of large companies such as automobile manufacturers and electrical manufacturers, is seeking to focus on IT companies. For this reason, the focus of future discussions will be on how much the “margin” will be set as the basis for determining the proportion of profits subject to taxation.
In the discussion so far, there is an opinion that “margin exceeding 10%” should be the standard, but at this level, companies with relatively low profit margins such as Japanese automobile manufacturers are excluded from the target There is a possibility.
In addition, whether to narrow down the scope of companies subject to the new taxation rules to large corporations of a certain size or larger depending on sales.