Internet Giants Threatened With Forced Disclosure in France
- France locked in tussle with U.S. over tax on digital firms
- Former minister says tax should be raising much more money
This article is for subscribers only.
France’s former digital affairs minister wants to force internet giants like Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple to reveal how much profit they make in France, saying the companies are understating their French activities to a vast extent.
Mounir Mahjoubi, who served in President Emmanuel Macron’s administration until March, said he may file an amendment requiring the disclosure to the budget bill that lawmakers will begin discussing Friday. Otherwise, the government’s new digital tax may end up collecting only half the money that it should, he said. The administration is due to publish its first estimate of how much the levy will raise at the end of the year.