Grassley, Neal, Wyden, Brady Joint Statement on Unilateral Digital Services Taxes, OECD Negotiations to Address the Tax Challenges of the Digitalization of the Economy

WASHINGTON – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA), Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) and House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-TX) today released the following statement.

 

“The tax challenges that have arisen due to digitalization of the economy affect businesses headquartered all over the world, and solutions to these challenges are best negotiated multilaterally. We are supportive of the United States participating in the ongoing OECD negotiations on these solutions. We call on other countries to focus on and engage productively in the OECD dialogue in order to reach measured and comprehensive solutions, and abandon unilateral measures. Even on an interim basis, unilateral actions, such as digital services taxes proposed by some countries, can adversely affect U.S. businesses and have negative economic and diplomatic effects.

 

“We look forward to engaging with the Treasury Department throughout this process and evaluating the outcome of the OECD’s work and its impact on U.S. taxpayers and the U.S. treasury.”

 

Under the OECD/G-20 Inclusive Framework on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), over 125 countries are currently negotiating solutions to address the tax challenges of the digitalization of the economy. The G-20 finance ministers and other senior government representatives are meeting in Washington this week. The French National Assembly passed a unilateral digital services tax that would disproportionately affect U.S. technology companies. The law is expected to be taken up by the French Senate soon.