Countdown to digital tax

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Countdown to digital tax

paris-src-leonard-cotte-unsplash.jpg

The OECD held a two-day conference on January 14-15 to allow stakeholders to discuss its blueprints for digital tax reform ahead of the G20/Inclusive Framework meeting later in January.

The Paris-based organisation has to find a final agreement on pillar one and pillar two by mid-2021 or nothing will stop the rise of tax nationalism around the world. A growing number of countries are imposing forms of digital taxes on technology companies to gain revenues they believe to be owed.

Yet the digital tax framework will affect more taxpayers than US corporations such as Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook. Pharmaceutical companies, for example, are concerned about the consequences for their industry given the importance of intangible assets. Here, Alice Jones, Danish Mehboob and Josh White take a look at the proposals put forward by companies such as Microsoft, Netflix and Unilever in response to the blueprints.

Highlights of the OECD consultation on pillars one and two

Microsoft warns digital tax agenda may fail on its complexity

Uber recommends the OECD rethink Amount A scope

Netflix rejects ‘political’ ring fencing in OECD digital tax blueprints

Unilever: How the OECD could simplify pillar two

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

The threat of 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods coincides with new Brazilian legal powers to adopt retaliatory economic measures, local experts tell ITR
The country’s chancellor appears to have backtracked from previous pillar two scepticism; in other news, Donald Trump threatened Russia with 100% tariffs
In its latest G20 update, the OECD also revealed tense discussions with the US where the ‘significant threat’ of Section 899 was highlighted
The tax agency has increased compliance yield from wealthy individuals but cannot identify how much tax is paid by UK billionaires, the committee also claimed
Saffery cautioned that documentation requirements in new government proposals must be limited if medium-sized companies are not exempted from TP
The global minimum tax deal is not viable without US participation, Friedrich Merz has argued
Section 899 of the ‘one big beautiful’ bill would have spelled disaster for many international investors into the US, but following its shelving, attention turns to the fate of the OECD’s pillars
DLA Piper’s co-head of tax for the US and Latin America tells ITR about her fervent belief in equal access to the law, loving yoga, and paternal inspirations
Tax expert Craig Hillier agrees with the comparison of pillar two to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut
The amount is reported to be up 57% from the £5.6bn that the UK tax agency believes was underpaid in the previous year
Gift this article