Austria to introduce digital tax after failure of EU-wide plan

[March 15, 2019]   VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria will press ahead with a planned tax on Internet giants after plans for an EU-wide levy fell through this week, Finance Minister Hartwig Loeger said on Friday.

Austria's Finance Minister Hartwig Loeger addresses the media before a cabinet meeting in Vienna, Austria August 22, 2018. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

Austria said in January that it would tax firms like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Alibaba 3 percent of their advertising revenue from within Austria.

It said at the time that it would hold off on implementing that plan until a European Union finance ministers' meeting this week in case a deal was reached on an EU-wide digital tax, but ministers abandoned the idea when they met on Monday.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
 

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