MUMBAI: Digital services taxes (DSTs) adopted by India, Italy and Turkey discriminate against US companies, are inconsistent with the currently prevailing principles of international tax and burden or restrict US companies.
These are the findings of the office of the US Trade Representative<\/a> (USTR) that were recently made public, pursuant to an investigation carried out under section 301 of The Trade Act, 1974.
In particular, USTR’s report points out that: “India’s DST is an outlier. It taxes numerous categories of digital services that are not leviable under other DSTs adopted around the world. This brings more US companies within the scope of the DST, and makes the measure significantly more burdensome.”
USTR has also undertaken similar investigations with respect to the DSTs adopted or under consideration by Austria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, the European Union, Indonesia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The reports relating to these countries are awaited.
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