Live Online Policy Forum 

# Digital Services Taxes at a Crossroads: European Perspectives on What Comes Next 

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Date and Time 

May 6, 2026 10 - 10:50 AM EDT 

Location 

Live Online 

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##### Featuring 

![Matthias Bauer new circle crop](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2026-04/matthias-bauer-new-circle-crop.jpeg?itok=VevyLV2h) 

Matthias Bauer 

Director, European Centre for International Political Economy

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](https://twitter.com/MatBauerEcon) 

![Cristina Enache](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2026-04/cristina-enache.jpeg?itok=VEiZfLXr) 

Cristina Enache 

Economist, Tax Foundation Europe

[ 

](https://twitter.com/crisberechet) 

![Andreas Hellmann](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2026-04/Andreas-Hellmann-circle.jpeg?itok=zDXNDS8l) 

Andreas Hellmann 

Director of Outreach, Tax & Regulatory Policy, Tholos Foundation

[ 

](https://twitter.com/ahellmanndc) 

[![Adam N. Michel cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2023-02/adam-michel-cropped.jpg?itok=2xIg84-_)](/people/adam-n-michel) 

[Adam N. Michel](/people/adam-n-michel)

Director of Tax Policy Studies, Cato Institute; Former Deputy Staff Director at the US Congress Joint Economic Committee

[ 

](https://x.com/adamnmichel) 

In 2021, over 135 countries agreed to overhaul international corporate taxes by reallocating taxing rights as part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/​G20 Two-Pillar Framework. The Pillar 1 portion of that agreement was supposed to end unilateral digital services taxes (DSTs), which are taxes on certain digital business activities usually conducted by large American tech companies. It is now clear that the agreement was unworkable and undesirable.

Now the US Treasury has signaled it wants to reassess the goals of Pillar 1 “from first principles,” and DSTs have reemerged as part of the transatlantic debate over how to tax the digital economy. Several EU countries continue collecting DST revenues; new digital tax proposals are emerging; and the Trump administration has pursued trade actions against European DSTs as discriminatory against American firms. At the same time, a growing body of research questions whether DSTs are worth the trade friction, compliance costs, and economic distortions they create.

Join us for a conversation with leading European voices on the future of digital taxation. We will examine why the political prominence of DSTs outstrips their fiscal significance, how the tax burden is passed through to consumers, and how Europe’s existing tax system might be part of the digital tax solution. This event is relevant to policymakers, trade officials, tax practitioners, and business leaders on both sides of the Atlantic as they navigate the increasingly fragmented landscape of digital taxation.

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