• TAX ALERT | DIGITAL SERVICES TAX (DST) INTRODUCED IN FRANCE
Article:

TAX ALERT | DIGITAL SERVICES TAX (DST) INTRODUCED

31 July 2019

Sacha Boksenbaum, Attorney at law - Partner - Corporate tax - Mergers and Acquisitions |

A French Digital Services Tax (DST) has been definitively adopted by the French parliament,
and will apply retroactively for 2019.

Context and objectives

The introduction of the “GAFA” tax was announced by Bruno Le Maire, Minister of The Economy and Finance on 6 December 2018.  

On 24 July 2019, President Macron signed the legislation creating the GAFA tax on digital services, largely inspired by the EU Directive for which no consensus was found.  

The DST should be temporary, while waiting for a long-term and coordinated solution by OECD members. Multilateral negotiations are progressing and an agreement could be reached by 2020.  

Download this insight of BDO Avocats which analyses the different aspects of this new digital services tax :

  • Scope of the tax
  • Territorial scope
  • Tax payers
  • Rate
  • Filling and payment
  • Deductibility of the tax