WEB DESK

European Union has unveiled new plans to make big tech companies pay more taxes. The move, if endorsed, would hit big online US firms like Google and Facebook.

The European Commission said that EU member countries should be able to tax firms that make profits on their territory even if they aren’t physically present.

It would concern any country where a firm’s annual revenue exceeds 7 million euros, or which has more than 100,000 users or more than 3,000 digital service business contracts in a tax year.

The European Commission estimates that up to 150 companies could be affected, around half of them from the US.

A potential trade war is already looming over President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, while his unclear tax plans have left the EU mulling counter measures.