IT Blog

PARIS (Reuters) – Nearly 140 governments have agreed to launch a rewrite of decades-old cross-border tax rules for the digital age over the coming months, the Organization for Economic Cooperation said on Friday after talks this week in Paris.

The rise of Amazon (AMZN.O), Facebook (FB.O) and Google (GOOGL.O) has strained existing rules to breaking point because big tech companies can book profits in low-tax countries like Ireland no matter where their customers are located.

Tax officials from 137 governments agreed at a meeting in Paris to launch negotiations on new rules for where tax should be paid and what share of profit should be taxed when big digital and other consumer-facing businesses do not have a physical presence in the market, the OECD said.

A growing number of countries are…