France imposes digital tax on Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon (GAFA)
The French Parliament on Thursday adopted, by a final vote of the Senate, the introduction of a tax on `GAFA’, making France one of the first countries to impose a tax on digital giants.
The GAFA tax refers to an acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.
The digital tax is endorsed by the opposition-controlled upper house, paving the way to the eurozone second largest power to unilaterally tax internet giants by three per cent on much of their digital sales in France.
This is related to advertising, websites and the resale of private data.
The tax was initially adopted by the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on July 4.
GAFA targets digital companies with global annual sales of more than 750 million euros ($845.6 million) and sales in France of at least 25 million euros.
Introduced in France from Jan. 1, this three per cent tax on digital gross sales would help to collect 400 million euros this year and 650 million euros by 2022.
