The United States of America has announced that an investigation to be commenced into the fees for digital services being implemented in several countries around the world. Some of EU-member countries, including Austria, Spain, Italy, and Czechia are included within the scope of the survey, along with other countries, United Kingdom, Brazil, India and Indonesia. It is announced that Turkey will also be among the list of countries under investigation.
It is indicated that Donald Trump, the President of United States of America, argues that some countries have been implementing digital services tax over the revenues of American-originated multinational technological giants (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc.) in an 'unfair' manner, and the "United States is prepared to take any appropriate measures to defend its businesses and workers against any discrimination"
Whereas, some countries, led by France, has decided to withdraw Draft Digital Service Tax against the pressure of The United States of America; Turkey has been among the first countries enforced Digital Services Tax despite of that pressure.
Turkey enforced Digital Services Tax as of 1 March 2020 at the rate of 7,5% over the revenues of technology companies with more than TRY 20mio Turkey-sourced revenue and worldwide revenues exceeding the threshold of EUR 750mio (or equivalent). Based on the information of General Directorate of Public Accounts of Turkey, total collection of digital services tax amounts to TRY 67,6mio for the period of April'20.
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