Italy ready to talk to Trump to avoid US retaliation over web tax

ROME (Reuters) - Italy is ready to talk to the incoming U.S. administration of Donald Trump to avoid potential retaliation against Rome's domestic web tax, Deputy Economy Minister Maurizio Leo said on Tuesday.

Washington has recently renewed calls for Italy to repeal the levy, which it considers unfairly discriminatory as it mainly targets U.S. tech companies such as Meta Platforms, Google and Amazon.

"With the Trump administration we will have to have a dialogue" over the tax, Leo said on the sidelines of parliamentary work.

In 2019, Rome introduced a 3% levy on revenue from internet transactions for digital companies with annual sales of at least 750 million euros ($786 million) if at least 5.5 million euros are generated in Italy.

As part of the 2025 budget bill, the Treasury tried to remove these floors for the tax to be applied, in a move critics said would have been a blow to smaller companies.

However, following skirmishes with the co-ruling Forza Italia party, the government is set to reinstate the 750 million euro revenue floor.

Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti had said that broadening the scope of Italy's web tax to smaller firms could have helped the government avoid clashes with the United States.

($1 = 0.9538 euros)

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)