This is a matter of fair taxes. Especially large digital companies have clever ways to avoid taxes, says Philip Amthor, a high-ranking official in the department responsible for the issue, to the newspaper Die Welt.
He adds that German companies are simultaneously "treated without mercy, everything is taxed".
Wolfram Weimer, Germany's media and culture commissioner, states that the government is drafting a bill but that Alphabet and other large tech giants will first be invited to negotiations.
The announcement comes at the same time as the US President Donald Trump this week extended a deadline for the imposition of higher import tariffs on goods from the EU until July 9.
