The European Union is considering a tax increase on Big Tech that it believes will avoid a US backlash, but some EU members are already against it. Back in July 2025, the EU dropped its plans for a tax on Big Tech firms, seemingly to appease Trump during trade negotiations. Now according to the Financial Times, the EU has a new plan that would raise similar sums without specifically being a digital tax.
Instead of targeting only digital firms, the EU proposes a levy on all companies over a certain size. At present, the proposal is for firms with annual revenues of around $117 million (100 million Euros) in the region. This proposal is called Corporate Resource for Europe (CORE) and would see firms with EU subsidiaries paying a lump sum.
The idea that this might escape US retaliation appears to center on how local subsidiary companies represent a small fraction of multinational firms' revenues. The EU's published plans do not as yet quantify how much that annual levy would be. The documentation says only that it would be "differentiated per companies' net turnover." Even without further details, though, CORE has already been criticized as much as the previous digital tax plan was. "Some [EU members] are opposed to a pure digital tax because they don't want to upset the Americans, and many more are opposed to CORE," one unnamed EU official said. "The solution is to expand [the tax] to cover pretty much all the big companies." Yet the same increase that might not be a problem for multinational firms, could be a burden for local EU ones.
Critics of CORE say that it will put medium-sized European firms at a disadvantage. It appears that the EU is working to address this criticism by adjusting payment thresholds. While no figures have been reported yet, the aim would be that medium-sized European companies would be excluded from CORE.
How the EU hopes to get this proposal accepted By avoiding targeting only digital firms and instead aiming CORE at every large business, the EU is being optimistic about the US accepting the terms. Even before the US will publicly respond, though, the EU has to get CORE and other measures passed into law. As with all major proposals, this will require the approval of each of the 27 member states of the union.
EU-wide agreement is traditionally hard to achieve, but even when it is accomplished, the process takes time. This proposal is part of a set of funding plans known as the Multiannual Financial Framework. It is a funding program intended to start in 2028, perhaps coincidentally when the Trump administration is about...
Source: AppleInsider · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing