BERLIN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The German government plans to oblige electronic marketplaces like Amazon or eBay to collect data of retailers in order to be able to better check whether they pay taxes properly, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Tuesday.
The new bill will go into effect as early as January 2019 and will be first discussed by the German cabinet on Wednesday.
Germany's tax authorities estimate that they miss out on a high triple-digit million figure each year, mainly resulting from traders outside the European Union which pay too little or no sales taxes on online transactions.
According to the draft bill seen by Sueddeutsche, the collected data will include information such as the name of the retailer, the full address, tax number, shipping and delivery address as well as the time and amount of turnover. Digital marketplaces will then have to make the data available to the German tax authorities.
Online marketplaces who do not comply with those obligations will be liable for their dealers' unpaid sales taxes but they make use of their right to ban traders on grounds of non-compliance with the new rules.
The two biggest, Amazon and eBay, have indicated to cooperate closely with the German authorities on the matter of tax fraud.
An Amazon representative did not want to comment on the new draft bill but told Business Insider that "we have no tolerance for traders who do not comply with their legal obligations when trading on the eBay marketplace -- this also applies to their tax obligations."
