U.S. Digital Tax ‘Opt-Out’ Provision Unpopular on Global Stage

A U.S. proposal to make part of an OECD-led effort to rewrite global tax rules optional “will not fly politically,” the organization’s tax director said.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is working to get nearly 140 countries to agree by the end of the year to an overhaul of how the digital economy is taxed. The effort is driven by concerns that big tech companies like Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. aren’t paying enough taxes in countries where they have large customer bases.

After consulting other countries, it’s clear that the U.S.’s preference for making parts of the ...