Hugo Grimston, CFO of Paddle, on why he doesn’t think the digital services tax is the right solution.
In his Budget Speech the Chancellor announced a new Digital Services Tax which is aimed squarely at the likes of Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, although no mention was made to them in name.
International tech companies operating search engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces will be charged a levy of 2% of their UK revenues. It will only affect profitable tech companies making over £500m in global sales. The levy will be introduced in April 2020 and is expected to raise around £400m by 2022. It is my belief that the introduction of a revenue tax is a fudge which will end up aggravating those affected without filling the Treasury coffers as much as it should. ...