Trump threatens fresh UK tariffs unless London drops its 2% digital services tax on large US tech platforms.
Trump threatens fresh UK tariffs unless London drops its 2% digital services tax on large US tech platforms. The levy raises £800m annually and has survived prior UK-US trade talks.
Trump has threatened tariffs on the UK unless it scraps its Digital Services Tax The DST is a 2% levy on revenues from large digital platforms operating in the UK, raising around £800 million annually The tax applies to companies with UK revenues above £25 million or global revenues above £500 million Trump frames the DST as discriminatory against US tech firms, though HMRC data shows around 37% of liable companies are not US-headquartered The dispute is not new — Trump signed an executive order investigating DSTs across six countries in February 2025 The DST survived the UK-US trade deal struck in May 2025, with both sides agreeing to pursue a separate digital trade deal instead Trump’s latest threat coincides with a planned state visit to the UK, where the Starmer government is seeking a broader technology partnership UK public opinion polls strongly against concessions to Big Tech, with two-thirds of Britons backing enforcement of the tax President Donald Trump has renewed his threat to impose tariffs on the United Kingdom unless London agrees to scrap its Digital Services Tax, reigniting one of the more persistent flashpoints in UK-US trade relations and putting the Starmer government in a politically awkward position ahead of a planned Trump state visit. The UK’s DST, sometimes dubbed the Google Tax, is a 2% levy on revenues generated from UK users by large digital platforms including search engines, social media networks and online marketplaces. It applies to companies with UK revenues above £25 million or global revenues exceeding £500 million, and has raised significantly more than initially forecast since its introduction in April 2020, now generating around £800 million annually for the Treasury.
Washington’s objection is that the tax disproportionately targets American…