EU Big Tech tax proposal
The European Commission is weighing an expansion of its “Corporate Resource for Europe” levy that would capture revenue from Apple, Google and Meta without singling them out — a bid to fund the 2028-2034 EU budget while dodging the 100% tariff Donald Trump threatened in June against any country that taxes American tech.
Brussels is weighing an EU Big Tech tax proposal that doesn't call itself a tech tax. According to a Financial Times report published Wednesday, October 7, the European Commission is considering changes to its “Corporate Resource for Europe” (CORE) proposal that would require every company operating in the EU with annual revenue above 100 million euros — roughly $112.3 million — to pay an annual lump-sum tax contribution. The reworked levy would capture far more income from tech giants like Apple, Meta and Google without branding itself a digital tax, a label that has become radioactive in Washington. Reuters carried the FT's reporting on Wednesday; the Commission, Apple, Google, Meta and the tech industry's CCIA lobby did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment, and Reuters noted it could not independently verify the report.
Why this matters
This is the EU's most delicate balancing act of the decade: it needs new money for its 2028-2034 budget, and Big Tech is the richest untapped reservoir — but taxing it by name invites a trade war with a president who threatened 100% tariffs in June. The “backdoor” framing is the story. By taxing all large companies rather than digital firms specifically, Brussels hopes to achieve what a digital services tax would achieve — pulling revenue from US tech giants' European earnings — while arguing to Washington that the measure is neutral, not discriminatory.
Whether the Trump administration buys that distinction will shape EU-US trade relations for years. For American tech firms, the difference between the current CORE design — 100,000 to 750,000 euros a year — and an expanded version could be orders of magnitude. But the amount and mechanics of any reworked levy remain unconfirmed, because the FT report describes an option under consideration rather than adopted Commission policy.
How we got here
The road to this week's report runs through two retreats. In July 2025, the EU dropped its plans for an explicit tax on Big Tech firms — a move widely read as an attempt to avoid a confrontation with Trump during trade negotiations. Then in June 2026, Trump threatened a 100% tariff on goods from any country that imposes a digital services tax on American companies. The US Trade Representative's office has long argued that such levies discriminate against US firms, which dominate the sector globally.
With the 2028-2034 EU budget cycle approaching, the Commission still needs what it calls “new own resources” — independent revenue streams to finance joint priorities over the next decade. CORE is the vehicle: a broad corporate levy that, in its current form, captures only a small portion of multinationals' earnings. Wednesday's FT report suggests Brussels is trying to square the circle — more revenue, no digital-tax label and no tariff trigger.
What CORE actually is — and what would change
In its current published form, CORE requires companies operating in the EU with revenue above 100 million euros a year to pay a fixed annual levy of between 100,000 and 750,000 euros. For a company the size of Apple or Alphabet, that is only a small portion of annual earnings. The documentation describes the levy as differentiated by companies' net turnover but does not yet quantify a new annual amount.
The reported rethink would expand CORE to “cover pretty much all the big companies,” in the words of one EU official quoted by the FT — raising substantially more from the largest firms while keeping the measure formally sector-neutral. A Commission spokesperson told Reuters that the institution remained ready to help the Council and European Parliament reach an agreement on new own resources needed to fund shared priorities over the next decade.
The political math in Brussels
The plan faces opposition on both flanks. “Some EU capitals are opposed to a pure digital tax because they don't want to upset the Americans, and many more are opposed to CORE,” an official source told the FT. EU tax measures generally require unanimous approval in the Council, meaning a single member state can block them.
Ireland and Luxembourg, which host European headquarters of US tech giants and have built economic models around low corporate taxes, have historically resisted measures resembling a tech levy. France, by contrast, has long been the loudest voice for making digital giants pay more. The Commission's hope is that a broad, neutral-sounding levy could thread the needle: formally sector-neutral while still raising meaningful revenue from the biggest companies.
The American tripwire
Trump's June threat of 100% tariffs on goods from countries imposing digital services taxes was explicit, and the USTR has a long institutional memory on this file. It has threatened retaliatory tariffs against European countries over digital levies for years, arguing they discriminate against US companies.
The legal question Washington will ask is whether a formally neutral levy that in practice falls heavily on American tech firms counts as discrimination. The Commission's argument would be that taxing all large companies — European ones included — makes that case harder to sustain than a tax that names digital services outright. But tariff threats do not require a completed legal case. Apple, Google, Meta and the CCIA did not respond to Reuters on Wednesday, leaving the industry's position on the reported changes unclear.
Who wins, who loses
If an expanded CORE survives, the Commission would gain a revenue stream for the 2028-2034 budget without explicitly reviving the digital-tax label. Revenue-hungry member states, including France, would gain a mechanism for collecting more from large companies' European operations.
US tech firms could face substantially higher European tax bills. Critics also warn that medium-sized European companies could be pulled into a levy designed with giants in mind, potentially putting them at a competitive disadvantage. The transatlantic trade relationship carries the broadest risk: if Washington reads a neutral corporate levy as a digital tax in disguise, a budget negotiation could spill into a tariff fight.
What happens next
Watch four things. First, the Commission's formal text: whether the levy stays a modest lump sum or becomes genuinely turnover-differentiated will reveal how much revenue it is designed to raise. Second, the Council: unanimity means the plan's opponents need only one vote, and Ireland's position will be closely watched. Third, the European Parliament's stance on the own-resources package. Fourth, Washington — whether the USTR opens a Section 301 investigation or Trump revives the tariff threat.
The timeline is the 2028-2034 budget, but the political fuse is shorter. Until the Commission publishes formal text, the proposal's scope, rates and treatment of different sectors remain reported possibilities rather than settled policy.
Sources
- Reuters, October 7, 2026: report on the proposed expansion of CORE
- Financial Times, October 7, 2026: original report, cited by Reuters.
- AppleInsider, October 7, 2026: opposition in Washington and EU capitals