Germany plans to impose a 10% digital tax on tech giants like Google.

German Minister of Culture and Media Affairs, Wolf-Rdiger Weimer, is planning to introduce a digital tax targeting major Internet companies like Google and Meta. Weimer revealed in an interview that a related draft law is currently being prepared. Weimer proposed that online advertising services could be taxed, or companies could voluntarily commit to paying. He stated in the interview: "This not only applies to Google advertising, but also to all platform operators with revenues in the tens of billions. We believe a 10% tax rate is appropriate and reasonable." The proposal is based on a policy implemented in Austria since 2020: large online platforms are required to pay a 5% tax on advertising revenue. Weimer refers to this as a "platform solidarity fund" that applies to platforms using media content. He emphasized: "This includes not only news products, but also cultural content." However, he did not disclose specific implementation details, such as expected revenue scale and use of funds.