Germany Eyes Digital Tax, But Who Pays?

So, there's this buzz in Germany about maybe putting a tax on big online companies like Google and Facebook. It's kinda complicated though because Germany's new digital ministry is saying, hey, if we do this, everyone else needs to be on board with it too. And get this, they really don't want this tax to make things more expensive for us regular folks.

Apparently, some guy named Wolfram Weimer, who's in charge of culture stuff, mentioned that they're looking into this tax. He even threw out a number, like maybe a 10% tax. But he didn't say if that's on how much money they make or how much profit they keep. The ruling parties in Germany did talk about this digital tax earlier this year, but it wasn't exactly at the top of their to-do list, you know? And officials said that Weimer's idea wasn't officially signed off by the government yet.

A spokesperson for the digital ministry was pretty clear about what matters for this kind of tax. They said it has to be done in a smart way, everyone internationally needs to agree, and it has to follow EU rules. Plus, any money they get should actually help Germany with innovation. And the biggest thing, like they said before, is that prices shouldn't go up for us consumers. That makes sense, right?

This whole thing is popping up as Chancellor Friedrich Merz might be heading to Washington soon to chat with Donald Trump. Trump has totally said in the past that he's not cool with other countries taxing American companies for their own gain. Hmm, interesting timing.

The folks at Bitkom, which is like a big industry group, are worried this tax could make things more expensive for businesses, government offices, and even us. Their president, Ralf Wintergerst, said that these price hikes would make it harder and slower to get public services and businesses more digital. He thinks we need fewer financial burdens on digital stuff, not more. I mean, who wants to pay more for digital services?