France to introduce digital tax from 1st January 2019

France following example of UK has said it will introduce its own tax on big technology firms from 1^st January 2019 after EU-wide efforts mired.

UK has already announced it would tax the revenue that online platforms such as Google, Facebook and Amazon make in the country to update a system that had not kept pace with changing digital business models.

French Finance Minister ‘Bruno Le Maire’ said he expected it to bring in €500m (£450m) in 2019.

Earlier this year, the European Commission published proposals for a 3% tax on the revenues of large internet companies with global revenues above €750m (£675m) a year and taxable EU revenue above €50m.

But European Commission’s effort for taxing online tech companies was opposed by countries including Ireland, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Finland with the exception of  France and Germany.

Critics fear an EU tax could breach international rules on equal treatment for companies across the world.

Countries including the UK and France have accused firms of routing some profits through low-tax EU member states such as Ireland and Luxembourg.

However, the Commission said it wanted to tax companies according to where their digital users are based.

The move will affect companies such as Google,Facebook, Apple, Ebay etc.