The finance ministers of France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom have reportedly sent a letter to the US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, proposing that new international tax rules for digital companies could be gradually phased in.

The ministers suggest in the letter, seen by Bloomberg News, that tax rules for providers of digital services could initially be restricted to those companies providing “automated” digital services and later could be applied more widely.

By offering such a compromise, the European countries are hoping to persuade the US to re-join negotiations towards the creation of an internationally-agreed framework of tax rules for digital companies. They reportedly suggested that an agreement that includes the US could be reached by the end of 2020 if a phased approach to the introduction of these rules was on the table.

For more information on this, and other topical international tax matters, please visit: https://www.cchgroup.com/roles/corporations/international-solutions/research/global-tax-weekly-a-closer-look

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