US urges delay to EU digital tax plan

Brussels: The United States is urgently requesting the EU delay a bloc-wide digital tax, warning it could torpedo international talks to overhaul global taxation, according to a US diplomatic document seen by AFP on Wednesday.

The argument has been made over recent days in a discreet but strongly argued diplomatic outreach by Washington to a handful of EU capitals, diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

The EU levy, due to be announced by the European Commission on July 14, "threatens the work being undertaken via the OECD/G20 process," said the US document.

"We urge you to work with the European Council and the European Commission" to delay its release, the document added, referring to the European institutions that will carry through the EU´s plan.

Its timing "would risk entirely derailing the negotiations at a sensitive juncture," the US added.

Negotiations involving 139 countries are currently under way at the OECD in Paris to strike an important preliminary deal on global taxation in time for a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Venice on July 9. Talks would then continue with hopes for a final deal later in the year.