FOREIGN INTERNET COMPANIES CAN IMPOSE A DIGITAL TAX

FOREIGN INTERNET COMPANIES CAN IMPOSE A DIGITAL TAX

FOREIGN INTERNET COMPANIES CAN IMPOSE A DIGITAL TAX
A group of senators has prepared a bill proposing to introduce a digital tax in the amount of 3% of income in the Russian Federation for foreign Internet companies with revenue in Russia of 2 billion rubles.

According to Interfax, the bill provides for the payment of a digital tax by foreign corporations that receive income from providing electronic services to citizens of the Russian Federation or from using data about them. The tax will be calculated from the amounts of income from the services of marketplaces, social networks, advertising and services from the use of user data. At the same time, income from the provision of financial services, such as settlements between banks, financial consulting and the issuance of digital financial assets and payment services will not be taxed under the law on the national payment system.

The amendments will affect the owners of Internet resources that are visited by more than 500,000 people per day. In addition, the company's activities must meet at least one of two conditions:

• Advertising is aimed at consumers in the Russian Federation; the data of such consumers is processed by the company, or it receives funds from citizens of the Russian Federation and legal entities.

• The Internet resource provides data in Russian or in the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation.

Accordingly, Google LLC, Tiktok and Apple Distibution will be able to get under the new tax. These companies will have to pay 12.7, 10.2 and 4.7 billion rubles in taxes in 2022, respectively. The authors of the initiative noted that similar taxes were introduced in Austria, Great Britain, India, Spain, Canada and Turkey.

28.05.2024