Weimer wants to continue taxing digital platforms

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The German government would like to make digital companies pay more. But how exactly, despite many words, is still completely unclear a good three months after the new black-red government took office. In an answer from the federal government on August 12 to a small question from the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag, which was first reported on by Stern magazine, there is still little sign of clearer contours to the plan.

A “fiscal as well as a non-fiscal structure in the sense of a special fiscal levy” is being examined, Stern quotes from the inquiry. According to the report, this would then affect “online platforms.” However, this term does not exist in German law and is also not established in European law in tax law, but only to differentiate between different hosting providers in liability law.

Audit assignment with big question marks

This means that the confusion surrounding the digital tax plans is entering the next round. The coalition agreement between the CDU, CSU, and SPD only contained two modest sentences on the plan: “We are examining the introduction of a levy for online platforms that use media content. The proceeds should benefit the media location.”

Examine is one of the formulations in political agreements that leaves the most room for maneuver. Moreover, the sentences are not in the finance chapter of the coalition agreement but in the media chapter, which is why the topic is also the responsibility of Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer. Although the long-standing publisher, editor, and journalist is not a real cabinet minister, he is considered an important player due to his proximity to Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). Weimer is the driving force behind the project in the cabinet and first brought up the debate in May in the middle of the customs dispute with the USA. The US is extremely critical of any form of digital taxes and considers them to be a “non-tariff trade barrier,” i.e., a form of customs duty that allows for corresponding compensatory measures.

Aiming for billions, but the road remains rocky

In an interview with the Funke media group a few days ago, Wolfram Weimer once again spoke of a digital tax and held out the prospect: “This could generate billions that would strengthen our media system so that it is not further deformed by American and Chinese monopolists.” However, there are no earmarked taxes. In principle, these always flow into the general budget, and, considering the urged spending discipline, it seems unlikely that the media, of all things, would benefit from this.

Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) and his ministry are also known to be focusing more on minimum taxation. He recently negotiated a compromise with the USA himself. In July, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz described the introduction of a digital tax for large tech companies that would not trigger a new dispute with the USA as “squaring the circle”—particularly regarding joint European implementation.

Austria as a role model?

Weimer, however, remains confident that his ideas would meet with approval, at least in Germany: There is a clear consensus among the CDU/CSU, SPD, and Greens in the Bundestag in favor of a digital tax. The only realistic role model, to which Weimer regularly refers, would be Austria. Austria has such a regulation, albeit with similar side effects: the “digital tax” was only the second to be introduced. Since 2000, a five percent tax, known as the “advertising levy,” has had to be paid in Austria for advertisements in the form of posters, newspapers, radio, and television.

Because this massively favored online advertising and distorted the market, the so-called “digital tax” was introduced in 2020, which now entailed a tax of the same amount for digital advertising service providers with a global turnover of more than 750 million euros. The revenue from this, in turn, remains limited: 98 million euros went to the state coffers from the advertising tax in 2024, 124 from the Austrian digital tax. Converted to Germany's population, this would be around 1 billion euros in tax revenue—but less than half of the 2.25 billion euros that Wolfram Weimer alone plans to spend in his portfolio as Minister of State for Culture and Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the coming year.

(dmk)