Earlier this year, on 21 March 2018, the concept for the taxation of digital services was presented by the European Commission. The concept was based around two directives, that is, 1) a directive stipulating taxable presence in the form of a digital permanent  establishment, and 2) the collection of indirect digital services tax (DST) at 3% of the income arising from certain types of digital services.

The origination of a digital permanent  establishment in the territory of a particular state could occur if the number of users of a specific digital technology exceeds 100,000 thousand, if the technology generates profits of over EUR 7,000 thousand, and at the same time, the number of contracts for the provision of the given technology concluded with businesses exceeds 3,000. The areas in which DST may be applied include income arising from the sale of online advertising space, income from the sale of data attained in the course of digital activity, and income arising from the mediation of digital activities that enable interaction with other users and that facilitate their trading. The collection of the provisional tax ought to include solely companies with global annual taxable income exceeding EUR 750 million, of which the portion taxable in the EU amounts to EUR 50 million. The aim of these limits is to ensure that the provisional tax does not affect newly established and fast growing companies.

ECOFIN’s discussion reflects the proposal presented by Germany and France, according to which indirect DST would be solely a temporary solution effective up to the point at which international consent is achieved (principally at the level of OECD, G7 and G20 countries). Pursuant to Germany’s and France’s proposal, the directive introducing DST should be approved no later than in March 2019 so that it can become effective from January 2021, unless a multinational solution is identified by then. In the event that a mutual cross-country solution is found prior to 1 January 2021, the implementation of the directive introducing DST will be discontinued and the directive will become null and void starting 2025.

The Czech Republic has been supporting the full scope international solution at the OECD level. Nevertheless, it has also expressed its willingness to continue the negotiations of the motion raised by Germany and France, if DST gets introduced solely for a limited period of time. Conversely, Ireland is one of the countries opposing the proposal of introducing DST. On the other hand, the submitted proposals on taxing income from digital services provoke a number of speculations as to how the one or the other system would work simultaneously with the currently-valid double taxation treaties and the rules stipulated by national legislations of individual states.

Moreover, the EU is not the only territory where the proposal to introduce an indirect tax on income arising from certain types of digital services has been considered. Similar proposals have been presented, for instance, by Mexico and the United Kingdom (which is soon going to cease being an EU member state). The next ECOFIN meeting is scheduled to take place on 22 January 2019.

We will keep you informed on the developments in the taxation of digital services.

The article is part of dReport – January 2019, Tax news; Grants and investment Incentives.