Israel to tax Google, Facebook within a year

[JERUSALEM] Israel plans to tax internet giants such as Google and Facebook within a year, the head of the tax authority said in remarks published on Wednesday.

Israel Tax Authority chief Moshe Asher told Haaretz newspaper that taxing tech giants would make Israel among the "first" in the world, as the European Union still grapples with the thorny process.

"Our goal is to obtain as much data as we can, even if many of these figures are held outside of Israel," Mr Asher told the Israeli newspaper.

"Within a year we'll issue these companies tax bills," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Israel Tax Authority confirmed the report, telling AFP they were "in a process of creating tax assessments for the multinational companies", but refused to comment further.

In Europe, clashing interests are hindering efforts to form a unified policy.

France has led a major push to increase taxes in the European Union on mega tech firms such as Google and Facebook, which are accused of booking huge profits while denying state-coffers much-needed money.

But smaller EU member states that serve as low-tax headquarters for the giants insisted that the EU should only approach the issue on a far broader international level.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, is due to present proposals for taxing tech giants such as Google and Apple next year.

Members of the 35-country OECD, the policy club of industrialised nations, are meanwhile negotiating their own approach to taxing digital companies with hopes for a formal proposal sometime next year.

AFP