Facebook, Inc. and Amazon.com are among American technology companies that will pay France's 3% digital service tax from December - despite their strong initial opposition.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance has sent notices to companies operating in France. "Companies subject to the tax have received their notice to pay the 2020 installment," a ministry official said.
The ministry will collect the tax despite continuing negotiations at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that might lead to an overhaul.
The ministry said it will withdraw the tax if an OECD deal is reached that updates rules on cross-border taxation of online commerce. The OECD negotiations are expected to end mid-2021.
France suspended collection of the tax early this year while the OECD talks were underway.
"We will levy this digital taxation mid-December as we always explained to the U.S. administration," France Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. "Our goal remains to have an OECD agreement by the first months of 2021."
In August 2019, Amazon, Facebook, Google and other American companies were united in their opposition to the tax which promised to boost their payments by millions of dollars. They said it was "unnjustifiable" in a position paper submitted to the U.S. government.
Amazon said the tax was "discriminatory." Facebook complained it was complicated and would impose a significant burden.
Google said the tax would likely harm a wide range of American and other businesses that use digital services and ads to reach France consumers.
Facebook said its stance was "to ensure compliance with all tax laws in the jurisdictions where we operate." It said it has received its bill from France and would pay. Amazon said it received a similar reminder and would comply.
The 3% tax applies to revenues from digital services earned in France by companies with revenues of more than $30 million in France and $894 million worldwide.
The ministry hopes to raise about $596 million this year from the tax but the 2021 budget lowers the estimate to $477 million.
