EU looks to broaden its company levy to pull in more from US tech giants

The European Commission is considering a revision to its Corporate Resource for Europe, or CORE, proposal that would impose a fixed annual tax on large companies operating in the EU with revenue exceeding €100 million.

The existing proposal would require payments of between €100,000 and €750,000 a year. The Commission introduced CORE in July 2025 while looking for new sources of EU revenue.

The revised design is intended to draw more tax revenue indirectly from US technology giants including Apple, Meta and Google. It would move away from a pure digital tax, a path EU officials have sought to avoid because of the risk of tariff retaliation from the Trump administration.

An EU official said some member states resist a digital tax because they do not want to antagonise the Americans. The official said opposition to CORE itself is wider, and that broadening the charge to cover essentially all large companies is seen as a possible answer.

The political hurdle remains high. Any revised proposal needs unanimous backing from all 27 member states, and most currently oppose it. An EU official said changes to the revenue threshold, including an exclusion for mid-sized companies, could help win support.

The Commission’s approach reflects a trade-off sharpened by Washington’s stance. In June, President Donald Trump said the United States would impose 100% tariffs on all goods from any country that levied a digital services tax on US companies. Trump, who was re-elected in 2024, has criticised EU rules affecting Big Tech.

The US Trade Representative has argued that digital services taxes discriminate against American companies that dominate global markets. Previous digital-tax proposals in Europe have stalled amid threats of US trade retaliation.

Leaked drafts from July 2025 showed that a digital tax aimed at US technology companies had been abandoned in favour of a broader charge. An EU official has described the global tax agreement brokered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2021 as effectively dead.

CORE is one of five proposed EU own-resources initiatives. The full package is expected to raise approximately €60 billion annually starting in 2028.