Germany is planning a new tax that Donald Trump won't like

The new tax proposal comes as Chancellor Friedrich Merz plans to travel to Washington to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, Reuters reported.

German Minister: These Corporations Are Doing Billions of Dollars in Business in Germany

Donald Trump has said in the past that he will not allow foreign governments to "harvest the American tax base for their own benefit."

German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer told Stern magazine that his ministry was working on a bill and was also seeking talks with platform operators, whom he accused of "clever tax avoidance." The ministry wants to explore the possibility of alternative solutions, such as voluntary contributions, Reuters reported.

"These corporations run billions of dollars of business in Germany, achieve extremely high profit margins and derive huge profits from the country's media and cultural production as well as its infrastructure - but they pay almost no taxes, invest too little and give far too little back to society," Weimer told Stern magazine.

New tax puts Germany on collision course with US

Germany's ruling parties agreed in a coalition agreement earlier this year to impose such a digital services tax. If the German government decides to introduce a tax on sales revenues generated by digital service providers on its territory, it will join the ranks of other countries that have done so, including Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India, Austria and Canada.

According to Politico, introducing a digital tax could put Germany on a collision course with the United States if Berlin's decision is seen as a move in retaliation for tariffs imposed by the American administration on, among others, European Union countries. The tariffs, the portal stressed, hit Germany's struggling, export-driven economy particularly hard.

In February, Trump ordered his trade chief to resume investigations aimed at imposing tariffs on imports from countries that collect digital services taxes from American technology companies, Reuters recalls.