What’s new. The USTR said late on Thursday that it found the digital service taxes in the U.K., Spain, and Austria to be discriminatory against U.S. companies and “inconsistent with prevailing principles of international taxation.”
“The taxation of companies that engage in international trade in goods and services is an important issue,” said Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative. “The best outcome would be for countries to come together to find a solution.”
No actions will be immediately taken on the taxes, which the USTR said burden or restrict U.S. commerce, as investigations continue into similar taxes in the European Union, the Czech Republic, Brazil, and Indonesia. The office said it will keep evaluating all available options, which could include tariffs on imports.
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, shown here at an event in Wilmington, Del., on a recent day, could look to undo some of the 2017 tax cuts, including a potential increase on dividend taxes. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
For wealthy individuals, paying a higher tax rate on dividends could be in the offing under the incoming Biden administration, though it’s far from certain given all of the crosscurrents and political rancor in Washington.
Just what will happen in Washington regarding tax policy after President-elect Biden assumes office is hard to divine, and details of any plans for a dividend tax are scant. A spokeswoman for the Biden transition team referred Barron’s to a tax-policy paper on its website that calls for “those making more.
Barron’s had crowed that there “has never been a President with a fundamental understanding of economics better” than Hoover’s, yet the stock market crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression were so severe that Hoover had little scope for action. His bad fortune provided the impetus for the turn to Roosevelt, which to
Barron’s dismay would last a generation, including eight years of Harry Truman and his “big-government boys.”
But the pendulum would eventually swing back, and American politics since then has been characterized by fairly rapid swings between the extremes of laissez-faire on the right and big government on the left.