Billing and invoicing software based on Excel templates. Latest trending topics being covered on ZDNet including Reviews, Tech Industry, Security, Hardware, Apple, and Windows. European Finance Ministers Want to Force Tech Companies to Start Paying More Taxes. US tech giants like Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook which do business in the European Union have long. European operations through, uh, creative use of tax laws. That all might come to an end soon, if a group of member countries led by France is able to get their way. Per Reuters, the finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy and Spain have all signed a joint letter to the presidency of the EU now held by Estonia as well as the European Commission, saying the companies need to be taxed on total revenue rather than profits. We should no longer accept that these companies do business in Europe while paying minimal amounts of tax to our treasuries, the letter read. It proposed an equalization tax which would bring the companies tax rates in line with normal corporate rates, adding The amounts raised would aim to reflect some of what these companies should be paying in terms of corporate tax. Per the Financial Times, EU treaties require tax proposals to be approved with the unanimous support of all member countriesmeaning any such measure would need to win over the countries doing the tax sheltering, like Luxembourg and Ireland. Microsoft Home Use Program Uk Tax Rate' title='Microsoft Home Use Program Uk Tax Rate' />Cut rate corporate tax rates are a way for those countries to attract revenue, though the end result is that large, profitable tech giants and other multinationals are able to pay next to nothing or even nothing in taxes in some of their markets. Per the Financial Times, authorities believe the new approach could finally force the tech companies to shell out A French government official said that a turnover tax, even levied at a low percentage, had the potential to deliver a tax take that was orders of magnitude higher than what European governments had managed to collect so far. It is envisaged that the tax could be set at somewhere between 2 and 5 per cent of turnover, the official said. This summer, Googles parent company Alphabet managed to scrape by without paying a 1. France, the Guardian reported, after courts determined its use of an Irish subsidiary was legal. Apple was not so lucky in 2. SubInACL is a commandline tool that enables administrators to obtain security information about files, registry keys, and services, and transfer this. Find the latest business news on Wall Street, jobs and the economy, the housing market, personal finance and money investments and much more on ABC News. EU ordered it to pay some 1. Ireland, but it said it would appeal the decision. As the Times noted, rental app Airbnb paid less than 1. France, which might have set the tone for a wider crackdown on people using the service to rent out residences in Paris this summer. In August, it was revealed Amazon paid just 7. UK in 2. 01. 6, despite in 2. UK salesthough the low total was partially driven by issuing shares to employees. Reuters, Financial Times. On Monday, we learned that Microsoft was killing off the iconic Microsoft Paint program after 32 years and replacing it with Paint 3D in its upcoming Windows 10 update. We should no longer accept that these companies do business in Europe while paying minimal amounts of tax to our treasuries, the letter read. Shop for the latest software and technology products from Microsoft Store. Experience the best of Microsoft with easy online shopping. 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