The British government is weighing tax increases for technology firms and online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc that prospered during the COVID-19 pandemic, the British Sunday Times reported.
Her Majesty’s Treasury officials this month summoned tech firms and retailers to discuss how an “online sales tax” would work, according to leaked e-mails seen by the newspaper.
Meanwhile, British policymakers are also planning an “excessive profits tax” on companies whose profits surged because of the COVID-19 crisis, the newspaper said.
Neither tax rise is expected to be included in the government budget to be released on March 3, but they could arrive later this year as part of the UK’s efforts to cut debts, senior government sources told the Sunday Times.
With the budget deficit set to spiral to ￡400 billion (US$549 billion) this year, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is under pressure to try to tackle the shortfall and at the same time not choke off economic recovery.
Firms likely to be hit by a one-off COVID-19 tax include online retailers such as Amazon.com and Asos PLC, food delivery firms such as Ocado Group PLC, Just Eat PLC and Roofoods Ltd, as well as parcel firms and big supermarket chains, the newspaper said.
British policymakers have long talked of the need to help brick-and-mortar stores as they struggle to compete with online retailers, especially during the pandemic.
Sunak was in July last year looking into plans for an online sales tax, while new value-added tax rules for online retailers would bring in an additional ￡300 million, a British senior tax official told lawmakers last month.
The government is sticking to an election promise not to hike taxes on wages and sales in next month’s budget, a person familiar with the matter said last week.
Sunak would extend furlough and other business support programs due to expire in April, and announce new policies designed to show the “benefits of Brexit,” the Sunday Times reported.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS