EDITORIAL
It has been talked about for a long time, the tax on GAFA, digital giants like Google, Amazon or Facebook, is being born around the world. And this tax, the first in the world, it delighted our editorialist economy, Nicolas Beytout.
The principle has just been announced by the OECD, that is to say by the organization of the most developed countries in the world, which managed to share this agreement to 134 countries on the globe. A real feat given the very divergent interests of most signatories. The United States, for example, did not want a tax that could weaken their GAFA, which are real tools of economic domination on the planet. On the other hand, the countries that currently receive taxes from these giants did not want to lose them. And France, always ahead when it comes to taxing, has already created a few weeks ago its own GAFA tax that it will have to abandon.
In short, it was everyone for himself, so how did the negotiators go about it?
Instead of facing the problem, they have expanded it to all major companies, GAFA or not, as they make profits in one of the signatory countries of the agreement. I pass you the technique, it takes a bac +14 to understand, but the big news is that the digital can not escape. In this digitized society, this is the first tax that takes into account this way of doing business. And it is obviously very important: we know that the share of digital will continue to swell in our lives at all, individuals as businesses. This is where growth is going to grow, and the countries were previously quite helpless in the face of this complete change in the economic model.
And all countries will apply this tax?
Yes, the 134 signatories, those who are used to raising a lot of taxes like those who fall into the category of tax havens. As soon as there is a digital business flow in a country: tax. Which means that it is the first world tax. Never in contemporary economic history has there been such an instrument. Here too, it is a date: the economy has globalized, the tax is globalizing.
You seem to applaud. It's funny, you thought rather reserved on taxes ...
I am, and I remain. But the concept of a low-level global tax that addresses the issue of tax evasion, that is, not paying taxes where you should, and also the problem of tax havens: these countries which exercise unfair competition in the matter of taxation, I am for.
Some economists say this tax will be too low ...
So there, no worries. As always, the profound nature of a tax is unfortunately with time to increase ...