EU’s Planned Digital Levy to Cover Hundreds of Firms
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There’s always a way to fill up a fund as the Associated Press reports that the European Commission has proposed a digital levy in the coming weeks to fund its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, announced its executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager.
As it is, the Europeans have been busy trying to fire up growth and foster a greener and more digital economy. Recently, 27 European Union countries have already agreed to jointly borrow 750 billion euros for a post-pandemic recovery fund. The borrowing, by the European Commission on behalf of EU countries, is to be repaid over 30 years from new taxes, among them levies on the digital economy and on CO2 emissions.
Vestager said the EU digital levy had different objectives and the scope of the levy was “so much wider, it is not a tax.” “Where the OECD agreement is for the 100 biggest companies, this is for many, many more companies,” she said, adding that the levy would mostly affect European firms but others would also be affected.
