Is digital tax for large corporations an air number?

Wolfram Weimer, Minister of Culture, wants to be more against the market power of digital platforms. The independent politician only confirmed this in an interview a few days ago. He “started tax law and started an initiative for a platform soli,” he told the “Hamburger Abendblatt”. “This could achieve billions that strengthen our media system so that it is no longer deformed by American and Chinese monopolists.”

So do the operators of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Co. soon have to assign a lot of money to the German state? Contrary to the public statements of the Minister of State, which in one star-InterView has already brought the “model Austria” and a tax rate of ten percent into play, the plans for such a “platform soli” have so far been vapidly unconcrees. This emerges from the Federal Government’s response to a small request from the Greens in the Bundestag star is exclusively available.

The Federal Government is currently examining “different designs of a possible delivery for Online platforms“, according to Weimer’s document. How exactly the test order from the coalition agreement looks, such as what questions should be answered with which criteria should be answered, this is not answered. Nor is it explained what the schedule is for the implementation of the exam.

Even who would be potentially affected by the Federal Government’s response. To the question, wAs the Federal Government, under the collective term “online platforms” and which common business models of digital corporations are affected, Weimer refers to the ongoing examination. “A final definition of the term ‘online platform’ in the context of the test order is therefore not currently available.”

Weimer had im star-InterView said that one thinks “a tax rate of ten percent is moderate and legitimate”. This is now not confirmed in the Federal Government’s response. The amount is part of the “ongoing test”, as well as a “tax and non -tax design in the sense of a special fiscal tax”, the assessment basis, any threshold values, “as well as possible effects of these parameters to be determined on the German economy”. An estimate of potential income can only be made after the parameters have been determined. The exam also includes an “evaluation of the compatibility of European law”, according to the document.

Clear criticism comes from the Greens. It is “quite remarkable how a political project, which has not yet gone beyond a mere idea, is broadened by the Minister of Culture with great announcements in numerous interviews,” said Misbah Khan, deputy parliamentary group leader star. “The statements of Weimer to the alleged amount of the solo, the selection of the affected platforms and the use of the funds remain completely substanceless.”

Government action requires more than headlines and interview appearances, Khan continued. “The cultural and media landscape rightly expects that the diagnosis of imbalance between classic cultural and media offers and the enormous market power of digital platforms will finally follow concrete and effective measures.”

Khan accepts the finance minister and SPD boss: Should Weimer “not promptly manage to advance the well-intentioned project”, Lars Klingbeil’s responsibility is to “ensure the implementation of the coalition agreement”.

However, in the black and red coalition agreement it only says that a tax for large online platforms is checked. Weimer had the project in star-InterView with “monopoly -like structures”, which restricted the competition and concentrated the media power too much. “On the other hand, the corporations in Germany do billions of business with very high margins and benefited enormously from the media and cultural performance and the infrastructure of our country – but they hardly pay any tax, invest too little and give society too little,” he said.

Federal Minister of Economics Katharina Reiche has already contradicted Weimer’s claims. “We should not talk about more, but about fewer trade barriers,” said the CDU politician. At that time, the Federal Government emphasized that the move of the Minister of Culture had not coordinated in the government and came to the United States in view of the EU customs negotiations. In the EU there are digital taxes in some countries, but no EU-wide regulation.