Germany Debates Digital Tax for Tech Giants - Will Prices Rise?

Okay, so there's some talk in Germany about maybe taxing big online companies like Google and Facebook. You know, those huge platforms? Well, the digital ministry there just said on Friday that if they do this, it has to be something everyone agrees on internationally. Also, they said it definitely shouldn't mean things cost more for us regular folks who use these services.

Apparently, the Minister of State for Culture, Wolfram Weimer, mentioned in an interview the other day that they're actually working on this idea of a new tax. He even threw out a number, like maybe a 10% tax. But, like, he didn't say if that's on how much money they make or how much profit they get to keep. Idk though, the ruling parties in Germany did agree earlier this year to think about a digital services tax, but it wasn't like, their top priority or anything. Officials had already said Weimer's idea wasn't officially agreed upon by the government yet.

A spokesperson for the digital ministry explained that if they go through with this, they want to make sure it's really focused on the right things. They also said it needs to be internationally coordinated and follow EU rules. And get this, they want any money from it to help Germany be a cool spot for new ideas and innovation. Most importantly, they stressed again that prices shouldn't go up for the ultimate users, which is us!

This whole thing is coming up maybe because Chancellor Friedrich Merz might be going to Washington soon to meet President Donald Trump. It's not officially announced yet, but Trump has said before that he doesn't want other countries 'taking America's tax money' or something like that.

Some industry groups, like Bitkom, are kind of worried about this tax though. They're saying it could totally make prices higher for businesses, government stuff, and regular people. The head of Bitkom, Ralf Wintergerst, said these price hikes would just make it harder and slower to get public services and companies up to speed with digital stuff. Tbh, he feels like we need fewer financial burdens on digital things, not more.