Industry data indeed show that the numbers promoted by the European Commission are highly misleading. Effective corporate tax rates (ECTRs), which are based on audited annual reports and therefore are widely accepted indicators for what real companies actually pay in taxes, tell a fairly different story.4 Even though effective corporate tax rates must be interpreted with caution, the figures demonstrate that digital companies often pay far more in taxes than large and well-known traditional companies, of which many are actually headquartered in the EU.For the period 2012-2017, an ECIPE analysis5 for large companies listed in major stock market indices, finds that:61. Real-world ECTRs for digital companies are not systematically different from those of so- called traditional companies. Contrary to the European Commission’s claims, the data reveal that many digital corporations show much higher effective tax rates than traditional companies.2. Large digital companies, i.e. Alphabet (Google), Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon, show relatively high ECTRs, exceeding 26.8% for 6Y averages (2012 - 2107) and 24.1% for 3Y averages (2015 – 2017).3. Considerably lower average ECTRs were found for traditional companies headquartered in Spain (IBEX35 companies) and Germany (DAX30 companies, where 6Y average (2012 – 2017) ECTRs amount to "only" 23.4% and 24.1% respectively.The study also highlights that “tax avoidance strategies are not a unique feature of modern digital companies. Many large traditional companies that are headquartered in France, Germany, Italy and Spain show significantly lower effective tax rates than large US-based Internet companies. Renault, the French carmaker, for example, shows an average ECTR of only 17.6% for the period 2012 to 2017.