EU Gives Up on Tech Tax Plans as Countries Vow to Go It Alone

Europe’s efforts to tax large tech companies were dealt a final blow March 12 as finance ministers failed to agree on a compromise proposal that would scale back the broad plan initially envisioned by the European Commission and Paris.

After nearly two years of discussions over how best to raise money from an industry that they agree provides less than it should to public coffers, European Union finance chiefs couldn’t unanimously support the most recent proposal to tax the EU advertising revenue of digital companies, amid diverging national interests and perceived risks of such a proposal.

Instead, focus will now ...