U.S. Drops Digital Tax Demand, Opening Door to Global Deal

  • Trump administration’s ‘safe harbor’ demand had blocked talks
  • Germany’s Scholz sees a new tailwind for taxing big tech firms
Olaf ScholzPhotographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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The U.S. has dropped a key demand in negotiations over digital taxation of technology companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc., lifting a barrier that had raised transatlantic trade tensions and prevented an international deal.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told her counterparts at a virtual meeting of Group of 20 finance officials that the U.S. is no longer calling for a so-called safe harbor rule that would allow U.S. companies to opt out of paying such a tax overseas, according to a Treasury spokeswoman.