Taxing times for Big Tech

The G7’s weekend agreement on a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15 per cent has been hailed as historic, but is still dependent on the successful outcome of wider negotiations aimed in part at bringing Big Tech to heel on paying its fair share.

The first hurdle will be winning the backing of the G20 group of nations, meeting in Venice next month. That would, in turn, influence the talks being conducted among 139 countries at the OECD in Paris.

As Chris Giles and Delphine Strauss report, the global talks must reconcile countries’ competing priorities on two elements, known as “pillars”. The first, and most important to the UK, France and Italy, seeks to ensure the world’s largest companies — especially Facebook, Google and Apple — pay more tax in their countries even if they have little physical presence there.

But US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen focused on the second pillar: the global minimum rate of at least 15 per cent. This would generate more revenue for the federal government in Washington. The first pillar requires a global agreement and US legislation which must pass through Congress, while the second — which the OECD estimates will raise the most additional revenues — can be implemented unilaterally, but would work better if many countries came on board.

Pillar one faces vigorous opposition in Washington. France, Italy and the UK refuse to abolish their own digital taxes until the US has passed the relevant legislation. The FT’s editorial board says the accord overturns a century of tax practice, where profits are taxed only where companies have a physical presence. However, Lex says extra revenues may be less than 4 per cent or $84bn, with the biggest share being paid by tech giants and other US multinationals to the US. 

President Biden will attend the main G7 summit in Cornwall on Friday, before heading to Brussels for EU-US summits next week. Today’s Europe Express newsletter says there is one likely “deliverable” that will come out of the EU meeting: the creation of a Trade and Technology Council to help shape standards and regulations in emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence. 

Today’s Big Read says the council would also boost co-ordination on 5G, semiconductors, supply chains and export controls as the US urges Europe to sign up to its plan to counter China. Big Tech may be a tax target, but tech companies in general are being weaponised by governments in this century’s struggle for economic supremacy.

The Internet of (Five) Things

1. Chip shortages to last into 2022 — Flex
The global chip shortage will last for at least another year, one of the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturers has warned. The forecast from Flex is one of the gloomiest yet for a crisis that is forcing car and consumer electronics groups to re-examine their global supply chains.

2. Uber bounces back in Europe
Uber’s ride-hailing business returned to pre-pandemic levels in the UK in mid-May, as the easing of lockdown restrictions spurred users to get back on the road faster than the company expected. Across Europe, Uber’s total gross bookings recovered to more than 80 per cent of the level reported in the same period in 2019. This week’s How to Lead interviews Markus Villig, who started Bolt, the Tallinn based ride-hailing company in 2013 when he was 19. 

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3. France fines Google €220m
French competition regulators have fined Google €220m for abusing its dominant position in the online advertising market and imposed changes to how it operates in the country for three years. The case could provide a blueprint for other ongoing lawsuits against Google in Brussels, the UK and US.

4. SoftBank-backed Katerra goes bust
Katerra, the US construction start-up backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund, filed for bankruptcy with more than $1bn in liabilities, becoming, after Greensill, the second leading company in the Japanese conglomerate’s portfolio to collapse this year.

5. Apple pressed to close privacy loopholes
Apple has come under pressure to tighten its new privacy rules ahead of its annual developers’ conference today, with experts warning that thousands of apps were continuing to collect data from users who had opted out of tracking. The new rules, which came into effect in April as part of the iPhone’s iOS 14.5 software update, force apps to get consent from users to track their behaviour in order to target them with advertising.

Tech week ahead

Monday: Apple’s WWDC annual developer conference gets under way this evening and continues all week.

Tuesday: Facebook-owned Instagram’s ‘creator conference’ takes place. Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount will testify to the Senate on Tuesday and House on Wednesday about the ransomware attack last month that forced his company to shut down its fuel supply for six days and pay $4.4m to hackers. Bay Area-based card-issuing platform Marqeta will price its shares on Tuesday ahead of its Wednesday IPO on Nasdaq and is expected to achieve a market valuation of more than $10bn.

Wednesday: Still trying to prove its credentials in the face of US sanctions, Huawei will open a global cyber security and privacy protection transparency centre in the Chinese city of Dongguang.

Thursday: The latest hearing takes place in a class-action lawsuit against Facebook accusing the company of overstating its audience.

Saturday: An auction takes place for a seat on the first ever crewed flight of New Shephard, which is set to lift off for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company on July 20. Bezos and his brother will also be on the mission to the edge of space. The E3 annual gaming convention begins virtually and continues over four days.

Sunday: The 24-hour news channel GB News launches, with some comparing it to a UK version of the US rightwing channel Fox News.

Tech tools — AKG Podcaster Essentials

To produce a professional podcast you don’t really need a studio, but you do need a proper studio-style stand microphone and monitor-standard headphones, writes Jonathan Margolis. This £280 all-in-one kit from the renowned Austrian microphone manufacturer AKG is a complete podcaster outfit, including software and leads. All you need to add is a PC or Mac and, voilà, you’re ready to podcast.

What’s in the box? The centrepiece is AKG’s Lyra USB microphone, a superb heavy-duty device with switch positions to adjust its reception field from recording just one person, to hosting a discussion with other participants round a table. The mic connects into the PC’s USB slot, and also has a rotary control on it for the interviewer to double as producer and effect smooth, intuitive level adjustments and fades. The kit’s AKG K371 headphones also plug into the microphone, which makes perfect sense ergonomically. The kit also comes with Ableton Live 10 Lite audio production software and there’s a free Berklee online introductory recording course.