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Pandemic may help global deal on taxing digital giants: German finmin – Metro US

Pandemic may help global deal on taxing digital giants: German finmin

FILE PHOTO: German Finance Minister Scholz attends a news conference
FILE PHOTO: German Finance Minister Scholz attends a news conference in Vienna

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic on government finances might help bring about a stalled international agreement on how to tax digital giants like Google<GOOGL.O>, Amazon<AMZN.O> , Facebook<FB.O> , Apple <AAPL.O> or Microsoft<MSFT.O>, German Finance Minister Olaf Sholz said on Wednesday.

Scholz told the economic committee of the European Parliament via video-link he hoped a breakthrough in works on such a digital tax might happen in the coming months in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The United States, home to the biggest digital companies, has so far blocked an international deal on taxing their revenues where they are generated.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski)