G-20 Finance Chiefs Adopt Statement on Digital Services Taxes

Rio de Janeiro, July 25 (Jiji Press)–Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies on Thursday adopted a statement for the early implementation of digital services taxes, apparently with information technology behemoths in mind.

Masato Kanda, Japan’s vice finance minister for international affairs, told reporters after the first-day session of the two-day G-20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro that the statement was adopted with an objective of beefing up cooperation over international taxation.

The statement mentions taxation on the uber-rich, which is pushed by Brazil, chair the G-20 meeting, according to Kanda. The details of the statement will be released Friday, when the two-day meeting ends.

The digital service taxation framework aims to have IT giants and other companies operating across borders face taxes also in countries where they offer services but do not have business bases. The G-20 economies agreed in 2021 to implement such a taxation system.

As there have been delays in the signing in many countries of a multilateral treaty needed for implementing the framework, the G-20 officials at Thursday’s meeting agreed to speed up the process.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]