IF IT MOVES ELECTRONS, TAX IT: EU Becomes A Graveyard For AAPL, FB, GOOGL, AMZN.

Reportedly, the European Commission (“EC”) is planning to impose “digital tax” on Apple AAPL, Facebook FB, Alphabet GOOGL, Amazon AMZN and Netflix. Per MarketWatch, which quoted a report by FT, these companies will be taxed on their revenues instead of profit in order to put a check on large tax avoidance.

A tax of 3% will be levied on the company’s advertisement revenues, subscription revenues and revenues earned by selling digital data. Per FT, European Commission is estimated to raise Euro 5 billion annually by implementing this tax.

EU’s aim on extracting as much tax revenues from these U.S-based tech giants has already gained support from 10 member countries including Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Portugal. Reportedly, Britain has also lent its support to this initiative.

How to pick a favorite between eurocrats and America’s pushiest tech giants?

To paraphrase Henry Kissinger, it’s a pity they can’t all lose.