Withholding Taxes Excluded From Digital Levy Ban: OECD Tax Head

A rollback of digital services taxes included in a global tax deal last month will be limited in scope, according to a senior Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development official.

The Oct. 8 deal, which calls for a moratorium on new digital taxes and other similar measures, has raised concerns that the scope of the agreement would stretch to other levies, such as withholding taxes.

The “other similar measures” language can be read as a kind of legal disclaimer or waiver to ensure digital taxes don’t survive under another name, Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD’s Center for Tax Policy ...