20261011 Digitalsteuer über Umwege?

11.10.2026 Digitalsteuer über Umwege?

Fear of Trump

... has certainly shaped EU policy since the "deal" that President Trump forced on Ms. Leyen in early summer 2024. After the threat of further tariff hikes if the EU were to introduce a digital tax on U.S. Big Tech companies, those plans were off the table. But particularly in yesterday’s report from the conference of the Privacy Platform, we heard from several speakers that reining in Big Tech is necessary and that taxation could serve as a starting point.

Budget officials in Brussels are well aware of this and are therefore looking for ways to tax the U.S. giants without actually using the term "digital tax." As the article linked below shows, there is also a need for this due to the EU’s generally strained budgetary situation.

That is why the idea of a "Corporate Contribution for Europe" (CORE) has now emerged, after an attempt to reach an agreement at the OECD level failed due to opposition from the U.S. CORE is intended to be a levy based on companies’ revenue rather than their profits. This would prevent manipulation involving corporate headquarters in various countries. The proposal would apply to all companies, but — with a threshold set at net revenue exceeding 100 million euros — it would primarily affect large corporations. The tax is expected to range from 100,000 euros to 750,000 euros annually, which would have little impact on Big Tech companies.

The Financial Times does, however, see the risk that such a tax could burden "small and medium-sized businesses." For this reason, the EU is now considering raising the thresholds once again to ensure that "only large corporations are truly affected." It will likely be a long time before a decision is made in Brussels and such a tax goes into effect...