US business has attacked the chancellor’s new tax on the world’s largest internet groups, arguing such a plan would set a “dangerous precedent”.
Several countries are considering how to rewrite their tax codes to capture more revenue from US-based companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon. On Monday, the UK announced the most concrete plan yet: a 2 per cent tax on UK-generated revenues of search engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces if their global revenues are at least £500m a year and the company is profitable.
In Washington, Tom Donohue, president of the US Chamber of Commerce, said such a tax would “improperly target large American technology companies” and “set a dangerous precedent”.