Information Technology Summary, including: US and European countries sign agreement on digital tax

Today’s short information technology news.

AG Connect provides an overview of today’s brief IT news:

The United States and five European countries have signed an agreement on digital taxation. The five countries, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and Austria, will adjust their current taxes on the services of technology companies under a collective agreement. In return, the United States abolishes continuous taxes on the services of those countries.

The agreement marks the end of a protracted conflict that could undermine the international tax treaty agreed upon by 136 countries. If the agreement goes into effect over the next two years, multinational corporations will have to pay 15 percent tax in all the countries in which they operate.

Technology companies in particular have not yet done so. Many countries considered this unreasonable, so Spotify introduced their own digital line to service providers such as Apple, Netflix and Amazon. The United States saw this as an attack on its own technology sector and responded with punitive taxes on the products of countries that imposed such a tax.

Those allegations no longer exist. European countries will refund companies under the new agreements if they pay more than the tax they paid. (ANP)

Google halves the fees that app developers pay when they sell subscriptions to their apps through the Google Play Store. From January 1, Google will charge 15% commission, up from 30% in the first year and only 15% thereafter. However, according to Google, many app developers find it difficult to retain customers after the first year of subscription.

Google’s discounts apply to subscriptions only. For things like in-app purchases on games, the technology company still has to pay a 30% commission. Google uses the rule of 15% commission for the first $ 1 million. According to the technology company, 99% of app developers pay that low fee.