U.S. looking at responses to unilateral digital taxes: Treasury official

[March 12, 2019]   PARIS (Reuters) - The United States government is looking at how to respond to plans by governments such as France and Britain for taxes specifically targeting digital companies, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Tuesday.

Chip Harter, the United States Treasury's top international tax official, said such taxes were "ill conceived" and that it was better to pursue broader international tax reform at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD).

"The United States opposes any digital services tax proposals whether they be French or UK," Harter told journalists in Paris before talks at the OECD later this week.

"What we have seen of the most recent French proposals, we view them as highly discriminatory against U.S. businesses... Various parts of our government are studying whether that discriminatory impact would give us rights under trade agreements, WTO, treaties," he added.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas)

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