El año que viene nacerá el primer impuesto global a las grandes compañías tecnológicas y de servicios

La OCDE ultima un acuerdo, que se podría cerrar el próximo año, para la creación de un impuesto global que se aplicaría a compañías con ingresos anuales de más de 750 millones de euros en sectores tecnológicos o que venden servicios y bienes a los consumidores.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is running the initiative, was scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday in Paris to discuss a proposal that would set a standard tax rate for a company’s global operations and allow individual governments to tax profits above that based on sales accounted for by each country.

The new rules would represent a departure from current regulations that look at where companies are based and where they hold patents and brands.

Dubbed the “unified approach,” the rules would apply to companies with annual revenues of more than €750 million ($830 million) in consumer-facing industries, a broad term that includes technology companies—which have been in the spotlight for their tax practices—and other firms selling services and goods to consumers.

Companies—some of which are still working through the OECD’s 2016 framework on base erosion and profit shifting, which abolished various tax loopholes, or the 2017 U.S. corporate tax overhaul—could be required to again make sweeping changes to their global tax structure within a short period.

The OECD aims to have agreement among its 36 member states on the unified approach by 2020.

That has caused high-profile companies and business associations to voice their concerns publicly ahead of this week’s meeting.

“Before deciding on the final proposal, we encourage the OECD to clarify a number of issues,” music-streaming company Spotify AB said in published remarks to the organization.

Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. said the current consultation document provided by the OECD only provides the framework for a discussion and that more information is necessary to come to an agreement.

Volvo AB, in comments submitted to the OECD, said the lack of detail makes it difficult for the Swedish truck maker to assess the implications of the policy changes.

Seventy-nine percent of tax executives at global companies described the current tax environment as uncertain, according to a recent Ernst & Young survey. Many respondents cited the OECD’s initiative as one of the reasons for the fogginess.

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