The national Assembly has voted to tax Gafa

This tax should apply to a thirty of the giants of the digital, such as Meetic, Amazon, Airbnb, Instagram or Criteo, and to bring 400 million euros in 2019.

Despite the opposition of the United States, the national Assembly voted Monday evening to the introduction of a tax on the giants of the digital world. The deputies have approved in the first reading by 55 votes to 4, with 5 abstentions, the article of the draft law put forward by Bruno Le Maire, introducing this "tax Gafa", acronym for Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple.

The deputies did not, however, completed the examination of the draft law, suspending their work for the evening before the vote on article 2 which bends the trajectory of decline of the corporate income tax for 2019.

"France opened a way"

After the vote on the tax, Economy minister welcomed the fact that "France opens a" way, saying to himself: "certain that a lot of countries will follow". He had bragged earlier in a measure "the honor of France" and a "goal of justice and tax efficiency" in the face of the "revolution" of digital, when the balance of the great debate has shown the importance of the tax issue in the eyes of the French.

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The French tax is based on a european project that was not successful last month because of the reluctance of four countries (Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland). For the minister, it will be used as "leverage" in the international negotiations. He has promised to mps not to relax its efforts "until the OECD agree", deeming it "possible as early as 2020". France would withdraw "of course its national duty".

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But Washington considers the tax "extremely discriminatory against multinational corporations based in the United States". The head of the american diplomacy Mike Pompeo had even urged Thursday in Paris to give it up. France is "determined" and "sovereign" in tax matters, had replicated Bruno The Mayor, who repeated his remarks in front of the deputies.

The tax, the establishment of which was announced by Emmanuel Macron in December, in the midst of a crisis of the "yellow vests", should contribute to funding the 10 billion euros of emergency measures in the economic and social. Same goal with the second article on corporate tax.

3% of the turnover achieved in France

in practical terms, the tax must relate to the digital activities that "create value thanks to the French internet users". It is aimed at enterprises that make sales on their digital activities of € 750 million in the world and more than 25 million euros in France. The idea is to impose up to 3% of the turnover achieved in France on online targeted advertising, sale of data for advertising purposes and the relationship of the users through the platforms.

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It should apply to a thirty groups, such as Meetic, Amazon, Airbnb, Instagram, or even the French Criteo, and to bring 400 million euros in 2019, and then $ 650 million in 2020-2022.

The "clopinettes" for the opposition

The principle of the introduction of such a tax has been the subject of a relative consensus, even if the elected opposition have made of the flats on a provision determined to be "symbolic" or " franco-French "by default". Some on the left have deplored a lack of ambition and a copy of "insufficient" (PCF) or with financial inflows amounting to "clopinettes" (BIA). Several elected officials from the right have reiterated the concerns expressed by the boss of LR Laurent Wauquiez in the JDD that France does not penalize "their own champions". This idea has been objected to by Bruno The Mayor (ex-RL), as advanced also by the IDU to Act as this will have an impact on the consumer.

The right to berate him mainly as a "switch" in article 2, which states that large firms will continue to be taxed at 33.33 per cent on their profits by 2019 through the corporate tax (€1.7 billion expected), which was originally lower. For LR, the tax Gafa is "the tree that hides the forest", article 2, weighing four times as much, in value." The minister reiterated that the cit rate would be reduced to 25% in 2022.

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The taxation of Gafa

Cedric Villani : "It's going to be much more complicated to attack the Gafam" Margrethe Vestager : "It would not make sense to rebuild in the same old world" Laurent Berger : "With this crisis, the social inequalities we explode to the figure"

The NGO Oxfam called the tax Gafa "symbolic". According to the organisation anti-globalisation Attac, nearly two-thirds of the total turnover of the Gafam (Microsoft included), to activities that are primarily "non digital", will not be covered.