After a visit by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier this week, the EU put its own plans for a digital tax on hold for the time being so as not to jeopardize the global minimum tax project. At the beginning of July, over 130 countries agreed on such a globally applicable minimum tax of 15 percent. This applies to internationally operating companies that have an annual turnover of at least 750 million euros. Now, however, Yellen has raised concerns about whether Amazon might – at least in part – avoid paying the tax.
Minimum tax: Amazon partially not affected?
In an interview with the US Financial broadcaster CNBC told Yellen on the question of whether Amazon would fall under the planned new regulation for a global minimum tax: “That depends on whether the company reaches profitability or not, and I’m not sure.” The background to this is that one of the two planned pillars of the tax reform relates to the profit margin. And that is comparatively low at Amazon. According to calculations, it should have been just 6.3 percent in 2020, as Spiegel Online writes.
Companies that are to be asked to pay for it financially as part of the planned global tax reform must have a return on sales of at least ten percent with a turnover of at least 20 billion dollars. It is unlikely that this threshold will be exceeded in 2021 either. If that were the case, Amazon would have to pay taxes where it operates and makes its profits – for example in Germany. However, Amazon would still have to pay the so-called minimum tax of 15 percent. Because the group meets the requirements for this.
