Trump's Potential Power to Tax Foreign Tech Companies

Okay, so picture this. President Trump might get the power to hit back at countries kinda unfairly taxing big US tech companies, like Amazon and Google. Yeah, under this big tax bill Congress is lookin' at, there's this part that says if other countries want to tax US businesses that are over there, then those countries' businesses here in the US should get taxed too. That's what this guy, Ron Estes, a Republican from Kansas who helped write this stuff, said.

Loads of countries, like over 17 outta Europe and others globally, already have or are planning these tech taxes. Germany even said just the other day they're thinkin' about a 10% tax on platforms like Google. Both sides in Washington, Democrats and Republicans, are pretty annoyed about these taxes. Even the Democrats, who aren't big fans of most of this tax bill, haven't really said anything against this idea of hitting back.

Trump's been pushin' for countries to make it easier for US businesses to sell their stuff there. And this bill would let his crew raise taxes on foreign people and companies doin' business in the US. See, the Constitution actually gives Congress the say so on taxes and money stuff, not the president. The folks who figure out tax money stuff, the Joint Committee on Taxation, say this part outta the bill could bring in a whopping 116 billion dollars over the next ten years. Pretty wild, right?

But some smart folks are worried this 'hit 'em back' tax thing could accidentally mean less foreign money coming into the US. Peter Roskam, who used to be a Republican congressman and is now big at a law firm, said this new rule is basically tellin' everyone the US ain't gonna let anyone call it a tax haven anymore.

So, the House of Representatives just barely said yes to this bill a few days ago. Now it's goin' over to the Senate. Mostly, Democrats are not happy with this whole tax and spending bill from the Republicans. It's got a bunch of Trump's main goals in it, like crackin' down on immigration, keeping his 2017 tax cuts, and even cutting back on some green energy programs.

This Section 899 part would let the Treasury Department say these foreign tech taxes are 'unfair' and put that country on a list of 'bad' foreign countries. Other foreign taxes could get looked at too. If a country's on that list, their people and companies here in the US could face higher taxes, and those taxes could go up each year, like a lot, maybe even 20% more.

Joseph Wang, who's an expert on global money stuff, thinks this Section 899 could help Trump balance out trade stuff. He explained that if foreign investment goes down, the US dollar might get weaker. And that could make US products cheaper for other countries to buy, which could help our exports. Some types of foreign money comin' in, like portfolio interest, wouldn't get taxed by Trump. But some experts are still cautious, thinkin' that taxing foreigners could make them less likely to invest here.

Duncan Hardell, who's an advisor at NYU, figures foreign investors might try different things to avoid these taxes, maybe even just putting their money somewhere else entirely. Idk though, it's a complicated mess.

This new plan is kinda the opposite of that 15% global minimum corporate tax deal that the Biden crew worked out. Republicans, led by Jason Smith, the guy in charge of the House tax committee, didn't like that deal. They said it wasn't fair and helped Chinese companies too much. Some foreign countries used that global minimum tax idea to put higher taxes on US tech companies, especially if they thought our generous tax breaks for research and stuff pushed the US companies' tax bill below that 15% line.

Trump actually told his administration back in February to fight these foreign digital taxes. But they didn't even talk about them in that trade deal with the UK that just happened, even though the UK has a 2% tax on foreign digital services. It's not really clear if the Treasury Department would actually use this new power if the bill passes, or if just the idea of it would make other countries change their minds. The department didn't say what they'd do when someone asked.