On Friday, March 26, 2021, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) office announced in a press release the Next Steps of Section 301 Digital Service Tax (DST) Investigations for Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The Section 301 DST investigation had found that the DST adopted by these countries against U.S. digital companies were inconsistent with principles of international taxation, and that they discriminated against and burdened U.S. companies. At the same time, the U.S. is terminating its investigation of Brazil, Czech Republic, Indonesia, and the European Union because they had not adopted or implemented the DST under consideration. If any of these jurisdictions proceed to adopt or implement a DST, the USTR may initiate a new investigation.

The U.S. is proposing to impose additional tariffs of up to 25% which would yield an aggregate duty revenue of $880 million. A breakdown of revenue is as follows, and all commodities can be found in the annex to the attached USTR Notices to be placed in the Federal Register:

Next steps in these investigations are as follows:

Deadline for Request to Appear at Hearing along with Summary of the Testimony: April 21, 2021
Deadline for Written Comments: April 30, 2021
Multi-Jurisdictional Virtual Hearing on Proposed Actions
Virtual Hearings on Proposed DST:
- May 4, 2021 – UK
- May 5, 2021 – Italy
- May 6, 2021 – Spain
- May 7, 2021 – Turkey
- May 10, 2021 – Italy
- May 11, 2021 – Austria
Deadline for Multi-Jurisdictional Hearing Rebuttal Comments: May 10, 2021
Deadline for Hearing Rebuttal Comments:
- May 11, 2021 – UK
- May 12, 2021 – Italy
- May 13, 2021 – Spain
- May 14, 2021 – Turkey
- May 17, 2021 – India
- May 18 – Austria