Why Digital Taxes Are the New Trade War Flashpoint

Big internet companies have long been the target of complaints that they don’t pay enough in taxes. Fed up, France imposed a 3% levy on the digital revenue of companies that make their sales primarily in cyberspace, such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Other countries also are targeting companies, many of which are American, that have multinational earnings that often escape the taxman’s grip. The U.S. isn’t taking this sitting down.

The French law imposes the 3% levy on companies with at least 750 million euros ($845 million) in global revenue and digital sales of 25 million euros in France. Of about 30 businesses affected, most are American, but the list also includes Chinese, German, British and even French firms. The idea is to focus taxation where users of online services are located, rather than on where companies base their European headquarters or book their earnings. Targeting revenue rather than profit gets around techniques many companies use to shift their earnings to lower-tax jurisdictions.