Political News
Trump threatens UK with fresh tariffs over digital services tax
By Josh White
Date: Friday 24 Apr 2026
(Sharecast News) - Donald Trump threatened to impose "a big tariff" on the UK overnight on Friday, unless it dropped its digital services tax on large American technology companies, escalating tensions between Washington and London over trade, taxation and foreign policy.
The US president said the UK was targeting major American companies through the levy, which charges 2% on revenues generated from UK users by large digital businesses, including social media platforms, search engines and online marketplaces.
The tax applies to companies with more than £500m in global digital revenues and more than £25m from UK users.
"We've been looking at it and we can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff on the UK, so they better be careful," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
"If they don't drop the tax, we'll probably put a big tariff on the UK."
Asked how large the tariff could be, Trump said it would be "more than what they're getting" from the levy.
"What we'll do is we'll reciprocate by putting something on that's equal or greater than what they're doing," he said.
The digital services tax was introduced in 2020 as an interim measure while international talks continued on a global framework for taxing large multinationals.
The UK agreed in 2021 to phase it out once a global system was in place, but implementation of the OECD-backed reforms has been repeatedly delayed.
The levy had become a significant source of revenue for the Treasury.
HM Revenue and Customs figures showed it raised £944m in 2025-26, up from £808m in 2024-25, while official forecasts suggested receipts could rise to £1.4bn a year by 2030.
A Treasury review said the tax helped ensure digital businesses made a contribution reflecting their economic activity in the UK.
Trump said the measure unfairly targeted "the top companies in the world", including US groups such as Apple, Google and Meta.
"The UK did it, a couple of other people did it," he said.
"They think they're going to make an easy buck, that's why they've all taken advantage of our country."
The tax was left unchanged under the UK-US trade agreement reached in May 2025, despite being discussed during negotiations.
Trump had since suggested that the terms of that deal "can always be changed", raising the possibility of further pressure on the UK over taxation and regulation affecting US technology companies.
The remarks came amid wider strains in relations between Trump and Sir Keir Starmer, particularly after the prime minister ruled out British involvement in the war with Iran.
Starmer told MPs earlier this month that "a lot of pressure" had been applied to him to change course, but said the UK would not be drawn into the conflict.
"It is not our war," he said.
"I'm not going to change my mind. I'm not going to yield."
Trump previously threatened tariffs and export controls against countries with digital taxes or technology regulations he says discriminate against US companies.
France, Italy and Spain are among other European countries with digital services taxes.
In a Truth Social post last year, he said he would "stand up to countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies" and warned of "substantial additional tariffs" unless such measures were removed.
Downing Street had not commented on the latest threat on Friday morning.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
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