LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s finance ministry denied a report that it planned to drop a tax on technology companies such as Facebook and Google.
Britain introduced the digital services tax in April after slow progress in global negotiations over how to tax tech giants, many of which are U.S. companies.
The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported that finance minister Rishi Sunak planned to drop the tax because it does not raise much money – around 500 million pounds ($654 million) a year – and could hurt a push for a U.S. trade deal.
“We’ve been clear it’s a temporary tax that will be removed once an appropriate global solution is in place – and we continue to work with our international partners to reach that goal,” a finance ministry spokesman said.
($1 = 0.7646 pounds)
(Reporting by William Schomberg; Editing by David Milliken)
