Brussels Eyes Broad Corporate Tax to Capture Big Tech Revenue, FT Reports

Brussels is considering taxing big American technology companies through a broad levy on large corporations, an approach designed to raise revenue for the European Union while avoiding a backlash from the Trump administration, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

The European Commission is working on new ways to capture more income from technology groups such as Apple, Meta, and Google without singling them out, the newspaper reported, citing six officials familiar with the discussions.

Brussels is considering changes to its "Corporate Resource for Europe" (CORE) proposal, which would require all companies operating in the EU with revenue of more than €100 million (about $112 million) a year to pay an annual lump-sum tax contribution, according to the report.

In its current form, CORE would require those companies to pay a fixed annual levy of between €100,000 and €750,000 depending on their turnover bracket — capturing only a small portion of a multinational company's earnings, but a significant new revenue stream for the EU budget.

Because the levy would apply to every large company operating in the bloc rather than only digital firms, it would sweep in the biggest US technology groups without naming them — a deliberate design choice.

The broad-based approach reflects EU capitals' fear of angering the United States. "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 EU official told the Financial Times. "The solution is to expand (the tax) to cover pretty much all the big companies."

US President Donald Trump threatened in June to impose a 100% tariff on all goods from any country that introduces a digital services tax on American companies, and the US Trade Representative's office has long argued that such levies discriminate against US firms, which dominate the global tech sector.

Reuters said it could not immediately verify the FT report, and that the European Commission, the Computer and Communications Industry Association — which represents several US tech companies — Apple, Google, and Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The CORE proposal is part of negotiations over the EU's next long-term budget, with the Commission seeking new "own resources" to help repay pandemic recovery debt and fund spending priorities. Analysts have estimated CORE could raise around €6.8 billion a year for the EU budget.

The idea faces significant opposition inside the bloc. Countries including Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands have resisted the move in principle, arguing it runs counter to Europe's competitiveness agenda and could set a difficult precedent for EU-level corporate taxation.

Whether the expanded CORE can survive both Washington's tariff threats and opposition from EU member states will shape not just the bloc's budget — but how much of the digital economy's profits stay within Europe's borders.