Germany is considering plans for a 10% tax on internet giants such as Alphabet and Meta, a senior official said on Friday, despite the risk of heightened trade tensions with the United States.

‘This is a matter of tax fairness,’ Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Digitalisation Philipp Amthauer told the newspaper Die Welt.

‘Large digital corporations in particular are adept at tax avoidance,’ while German companies "are treated mercilessly, everything is taxed. A fairer system must be created to solve the problem of tax avoidance," he said of the plan to tax advertising revenue from platforms such as Instagram and Facebook owned by Meta.

German Media and Culture Commissioner Wolfram Weimer said the government was preparing a proposal for such a digital tax, but would first invite Google and other major technology companies to negotiations.

Weimer, a former editor at Die Welt and other media outlets, told Stern magazine that "big American digital platforms such as Alphabet/Google, Meta and others are on his agenda.

He has invited Google executives and key industry representatives to meetings at the chancellery to discuss alternatives, including possible voluntary commitments.

‘At the same time, we are preparing a concrete legislative proposal. It could be based on the model in Austria, where the tax is 5%,’ he explained, adding that Germany ‘considers a 10% tax to be moderate and legitimate.’

He pointed out that ‘monopolistic structures have emerged that not only restrict competition but also overly concentrate media power. This puts media diversity at risk.’

"On the other hand, corporations in Germany generate billions in turnover with very high margins and have benefited enormously from our country's media and cultural production, as well as from its infrastructure. They pay almost no taxes, invest too little and give too little back to society,‘ the commissioner warned.

Weimer stressed that ’something must change immediately because Germany is becoming alarmingly dependent on American technology infrastructure." | BGNES, AFP