Earlier this year, the European Commission recommended that its members agree to two major tax proposals aimed at taxing Internet companies. Both proposals need unanimous approval to take effect—and when European finance ministers met in early November, there were objections from Ireland and Scandinavian countries, among others. The ministers are due to meet again on December 4, which will give the proposals' backers another opportunity to make their case.
While neither one is likely to pass in its current form, Joe Kennedy writes that the danger of EU countries subjecting U.S. companies to discriminatory taxes remains high. In an op-ed for Fox Business, Joe explains that individual European countries are free to pass their own national laws, even if the EU doesn't do so as a bloc. If European policymakers continue to press forward with their plans, either at the EU level or as individual member states, then the United States government needs to defend American companies, workers, and taxpayers by conveying that unilateral attempts to rewrite tax laws that reduce U.S. government tax revenue will face retaliation.