The lack of agreement between the ministers of Economy and Finance of the European Union became slow a few days ago that the tax proposal to force internet giants to pay a tax on operations of sale of data services, online advertising or agency that carried out in eu countries. Despite the fact that the European Commission presented in march a detailed document so that each State could raise, on an interim basis, up to 5,000 million euros per year, either through a rate of 3% on such activities, either through reform of the Tax of Societies, the competing interests of european powers and the pressure, primarily, of the four big digital companies (Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook) have once again disrupted the initiative. In this way, the call rate Google will have to wait until at least 2021, that represents a new failure in the progress towards tax harmonization, one of the main challenges of the EU.
Any tax reform in the european Union requires unanimity absolute, not just a simple majority, so it is unpredictable that in the immediate future is likely to achieve the agreement. Among other reasons, because there are countries that maintain a strong bond with these large multinationals thanks to collection systems favourable to the creative solutions that allow them to pay less tax than they should, based on their activity and their benefits. Also, for fear of retribution from Trump, that could start a new war tariff with the EU (since the four giant digital are americans), or that, as he warns Duke Buchan, the ambassador of USA in Spain, Pedro Sanchez, in the letter to which he had access to THE WORLD, the unilateral implementation of this measure could slow down the investment in innovation and the launch of technology companies to other countries.
With the anticipation that the agreement between the 28 would be feasible, as they counted with the support of the European Commission, Cristóbal Montoro introduced in the Budgets of 2018, the commitment to implement this new tax, an initiative that picked up his successor in office, María Jesús Montero. Now, with the opposition of Germany and other group of countries, the situation has changed, but the Government of Sánchez does not seem willing to back down. The mortgages they bought Sanchez with their partners populists to implement a policy of expenditure expansion, force him to dispose of the 1,200 million that is projected to raise with the rate Google. Go wrong the Government if private interests do not adapt to the times of the rest of the countries, already that a decision is opportunistic and hasty could prevent the agreement on a tax that is appropriate and fair, provided that it does not impair or halt the development of the digital and technological.
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