[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 268 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 268
Expressing strong opposition to the imposition of digital services
taxes by other countries that discriminate against United States
companies.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 30, 2023
Mr. Estes (for himself and Mr. Kildee) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and
in addition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing strong opposition to the imposition of digital services
taxes by other countries that discriminate against United States
companies.
Whereas a digital services tax (DST) is a tax levied by a government on a
company that provides a digital service to a person or company of that
country;
Whereas companies that provide digital services need not be physically located
in the countries where the people that use the company's services
reside;
Whereas under international income tax and trade agreements, a country's taxing
rights over multinational companies' profits are based on a physical
presence in such country, rather than the mere sale or use of goods or
services in such country;
Whereas certain countries have developed DSTs that deviate from this
international income tax system that are discriminatory to United
States-based companies, and that threatens the success of United States
companies and workers and their competitiveness in international
markets;
Whereas many countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy,
Portugal, India, and others have already implemented DSTs or similar
taxes;
Whereas, on July 10, 2019, the United States Trade Representative initiated a
section 301 investigation for France regarding their application of DSTs
on American companies;
Whereas, on June 2, 2020, the United States Trade Representative (USTR)
initiated section 301 investigations for Austria, India, Italy, Spain,
Turkey, and the United Kingdom, regarding their application of DSTs on
American companies;
Whereas these investigations resulted in the findings that these DSTs are
``unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restricts U.S.
commerce'';
Whereas, pursuant to that investigation, the USTR instituted additional duties
on selected products from these countries;
Whereas the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has
hosted multilateral negotiations with 142 countries to propose a
framework for permanently removing and replacing DSTs and other harmful
measures on a multilateral basis, and that the United States Treasury is
participating in those negotiations;
Whereas, on October 8, 2021, as a result of the OECD Pillar One negotiations,
``all parties agreed to remove existing DSTs and other relevant similar
measures, and to coordinate the withdrawal of these taxes, and on
October 21, 2021, the United States, France, Italy, Spain, and the
United Kingdom on a transitional approach to those countries' DSTs prior
to entry into force of Pillar 1'';
Whereas pursuant to this framework, the USTR closed its section 301
investigations and removed additional duties imposed on these countries;
Whereas DSTs continue to be collected from United States companies in certain
jurisdictions;
Whereas unfortunately, other United States trading partners, such as Colombia
and Canada, have instituted or threatened DSTs outside of the OECD
framework, and potentially in violation of existing trade commitments;
Whereas some countries' efforts have moved beyond DSTs to ``significant economic
presence'' policies intended to target, among other things, income from
digital transactions and of nonresident digital economy businesses;
Whereas these policies, including DSTs, will discriminate against United States
companies and lead to unfair double taxation outside the bounds of
current international tax standards; and
Whereas the United States Government currently has many options to oppose DSTs,
including intensive bilateral engagement, withdrawal of trade preference
programs, World Trade Organization dispute settlement, or imposing
duties, fees, import restrictions, or taxes on the goods or services of
countries that unfairly target United States companies: Now, therefore,
be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) is committed to free and fair trade between the United
States and other countries;
(2) agrees with the findings of the reports issued by the
United States Trade Representative that conclude that digital
services taxes discriminate against United States companies and
are in violation of existing international income tax and trade
agreements;
(3) supports the Office of the United States Trade
Representative resuming and expanding its investigations into
digital services taxes that were suspended as a result of the
October 2021 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development framework agreement;
(4) calls on all other countries to cease and desist from
implementing any digital services tax, and to immediately stop
unfairly targeting United States companies;
(5) calls on the relevant United States Government agencies
to use all available methods and resources to protect United
States companies from the discriminatory effects of digital
services taxes; and
(6) supports Congress looking at additional tools to
address tax discrimination among United States trading
partners, including tax countermeasures.
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