Indian governmental panel recommends to expand ‘Google Tax’

A Indian, government-appointed panel has recommended to expand the so-called ‘Google Tax’, which was proposed in this year’s Indian budget. The panel discussed the taxation on e-commerce, and proposed that online services must be subject to an ‘equalising levy’ of 6-8% of gross payment ‘if the provider of the service is a foreign entity without a ‘permanent establishment’ in India.’ Digital multinationals, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon, argue that the Indian establishments they set up do pay income and service tax, and that this policy would discourage innovation and raise the cost of a broad range of online services.