GAFA

Kyaw Thu
12-4-2019

Objective of the study

To explore a new taxation installed in France called GAFA

GAFA stands for

GAFA is an acronym used to refer to the group of four digital giants of the web, which are Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon.

According to the law and tax firm Taj mentioned that 26 companies will this year pay 3% of revenue generated in France to the tax authorities, as part of the Gafa tax, which must be applied retrospectively on January 1, 2019.

The list of the Companies by Group

        sale      service       ads
1    Alibaba      Amadeus    Amazon
2     Amazon     Springer    Criteo
3      Apple      Booking      Ebay
4       eBay      Expedia        FB
5     Google     MatchCom    Google
6    Groupon     Randstad Microsoft
7    Rakuten      Recruit   Twitter
8  Schibsted        Saber   Verizon
9       Wish TravelportWW          
10   Zalando  Tripadvisor          
11                   Uber          

Purpose of GAFA

France Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire explained that this tax is to achieve a fairer and more efficient tax system. The digital giants pay 14 percentage points less tax than European SMEs, he added.

Who will be affected

The tax will affect companies with a worldwide turnover on their digital activities of over €750 million and a turnover in France of over €25 million.

Starting from

It will apply to 3% of digital turnover (advertising revenues, commissions received by the platforms, revenue from the resale of personal data) generated in France from 1 January 2019.

Is France alone in Europe ?

Six other European Union (EU) Member States are setting up or considering similar taxation, and the European Commission backs these plans.

Direction

France will accelerate work within the OECD to change international tax rules.

Comment from United States

Chip Harter,the head of the US Treasury for international tax issues, deemed “discriminatory” the French project of taxation of the digital giants on the basis of their turnover. He threatens to seize the OECD.

References