Le Maire says tech tax will be close to 2%

French finance minister Bruno Le Maire revealed on Sunday that the European Union is indeed planning a tax on global technology companies. Speaking to Le Journal du Dimanche, Le Maire said the European directive, which will be unveiled in the coming weeks, “will be a considerable step.” He has suggested that the tax could range from between 2 and 6%. “It will be closer to 2 percent than 6 percent.” Le Maire said that the tech giants understand that the current situation was untenable and that there was growing resistance, even in Ireland and Luxembourg, to allowing them to take advantage of low tax rulings. “It’s a starting point,” he said. “I prefer a text that will be implemented very quickly rather than endless negotiations. We will fine tune it later”.

Now Trump threatens EU car makers

U.S. President Donald Trump stepped up his rhetoric on a possible trade war with the European Union over the weekend when he threatened to impose higher tariffs on EU car imports. “If the E.U. wants to further increase their already massive tariffs and barriers on U.S. companies doing business there, we will simply apply a Tax on their Cars which freely pour into the U.S.,” he tweeted. His statement was a response to Jean-Claude Juncker’s suggestion to impose taxes on the import into the EU of bourbon, Levi’s and Harley-Davidson, which the commission president had unveiled as the bloc’s response to Trump’s planned steel tariffs.  

Italy heading for hung parliament

Italian voters have given “the European Union a new headache to deal with” according to Reuters, as a hung parliament looks likely after Sunday’s parliamentary elections. Earlier in the day EU leaders had breathed a sigh of relief when the German SPD party voted in favour of a grand coalition that keeps chancellor Angela Merkel in charge. But voters in the EU’s third largest economy have seemingly flocked “to anti-establishment and far-right parties in record numbers” leading to potential new political gridlock.