国际英语资讯:News Analysis: Italy to move ahead with 2020 web tax despite intl pressures_时事

国际英语资讯:News Analysis: Italy to move ahead with 2020 web tax despite intl pressures

ROME, Nov. 15 -- Italy won't back down from its plans to introduce a web tax, Deputy Minister of Economy Antonio Misiani said on Friday, despite complaints from the United States that the levy would unfairly target U.S. companies.

"It is confirmed; we are not planning to change it," Misiani told reporters.

The European Union and the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are both working on similar moves to tax online transactions for a host of multinational technology firms including online retailer Amazon, social media giant Facebook, and Google, the dominant Internet search engine.

However, according to ABS Securities tax law analyst Sergio De Luca, it appears a few individual countries will put a law into place before multilateral entities like OECD manage to.

"It's often easier and faster for individual states to move forward with a measure like this, but doing so can cause problems later," De Luca told Xinhua.

France was the first European state to establish such a tax, but it agreed in August to refund part of the tax to the tech companies in order to make up the difference between the French levy and the anticipated tax from OECD.

The Italian tax, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020, is part of the country's budget plan, and it does not include any agreements for refunds. The Italian plan will charge a 3-percent tax on internet transactions conducted in Italy.