Perhaps some good news.

 

A global agreement to end the "race to the bottom" on corporate taxation is within sight, according to the French and German finance ministers.

 

France's Bruno le Maire told the BBC the G7 club of rich nations were "just one millimetre away from a historic agreement" on a global minimum rate.

 

He urged low tax states like Ireland to back a deal which would target tech giants such as Amazon and Microsoft.

 

The German finance minister said a 15% rate would help pay back Covid debt

 

Tax on big tech and multi-nationals has been a source of friction between the US and fellow G7 countries such as the UK.

 

German finance minister Olaf Scholz said it was important to stop the world's biggest companies from dodging tax.

 

He said it was "absolutely necessary" to reach a deal in order to "get out of this race to the bottom we see with taxes today…especially after the Covid crisis and all the money we spent to defend the health of the people, and to defend the economy."

 

Link

 

It's been a long time coming. Hopefully there will also be an agreement regarding digital taxation this year too. We may see a much fairer taxation system internationally due to the pandemic, which would be very welcome.

Edited June 5, 20214 yr by Envoirment

As someone who strenuously dislikes the fact that Ireland has been reduced to a tax haven with a country attached, I would welcome a higher tax rate here, although doing so on an international basis could only work if all countries agreed to it, otherwise you'd still have the usual race to the bottom. Interesting to note that if it is 15% that's the basement figure, there aren't as many countries in Europe that would have to raise their corporation tax rate to make it to that level.

An agreement has been reached!

 

The rules on making multinationals pay taxes where they operate - known as "pillar one" of the agreement - would apply to global companies with at least a 10% profit margin.

 

Twenty percent of any profit above that would be reallocated and taxed in the countries where they operate, according to the G7 communiqué.

 

The second "pillar" of the agreement commits states to a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% to avoid countries undercutting each other.

 

Link

 

This could help generate billions of tax revenue across the globe annually.

Great to see, i will believe it when I see it played out though. Might be bad for ireland though as it’s basically a tax haven. But it’s a bad thing that Ireland thinks it can do this so big companies come just to use the country. Plus a lot of those who work for the companies aren’t even from Ireland originally there come to work there from other countries.

A lot of countries have backed it now, including all of the G20. I'm quite disappointed in Ireland and Hungary though.

 

 

Officials from 130 countries have agreed to overhaul the global tax system to ensure big companies "pay a fair share" wherever they operate.

 

The OECD said on Thursday that negotiators had backed a proposed minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15%.

 

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said: "Today is an historic day for economic diplomacy."

 

Tax on big tech firms has been a source of friction between the US and others.

 

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which led the talks, said that the plans could generate about $150bn (£109bn) in tax revenues a year.

 

But the Paris-based organisation confirmed that Ireland and Hungary - countries with low corporate taxes - had not joined the deal on the global minimum.

 

All G20 countries, such as the US, UK China and France, did back the agreement.

 

Link

Hungary isn’t much of an issue because the language is a nightmare and the currency is f***ing worthless. Ireland is the big fish but their entire economy is predicated on being a quasi-tax haven. The real issues are all the British Overseas Territories. Almost all of them are tax havens.

 

The UK can sign up to this free in the knowledge that anyone with a decent tax advisor has already had them set up in a BOT or Crown Dependency. The UK signing up without obligating any of the BOTs or Crown Decs it’s basically the uk crossing it’s fingers behind it’s back as it signs. A completely worthless signature purely for show. It’s in the UK govs power to fix the tax havens and that it chooses not to while on paper signing up for this should clearly demonstrate exactly how committed this gov is to reform (ie not at all because most of them would pay more tax

Hungary isn’t much of an issue because the language is a nightmare and the currency is f***ing worthless. Ireland is the big fish but their entire economy is predicated on being a quasi-tax haven. The real issues are all the British Overseas Territories. Almost all of them are tax havens.

 

The UK can sign up to this free in the knowledge that anyone with a decent tax advisor has already had them set up in a BOT or Crown Dependency. The UK signing up without obligating any of the BOTs or Crown Decs it’s basically the uk crossing it’s fingers behind it’s back as it signs. A completely worthless signature purely for show. It’s in the UK govs power to fix the tax havens and that it chooses not to while on paper signing up for this should clearly demonstrate exactly how committed this gov is to reform (ie not at all because most of them would pay more tax

 

Perhaps if you took the time to read the list of countries, you would see all crown dependencies and all the relevant overseas territories have signed up:

 

Bermuda

British Virgin Islands

Cayman Islands

Gibraltar

Gurnsey

Isle of Man

Jersey

Montserrat

Turks and Caicos Islands

 

You can read the full list here - Link

Edited July 1, 20213 yr by Envoirment

There is no need for an attitude, the list nor any mention of the tax havens were on *any* of the links that you shared :)

There is no need for an attitude, the list nor any mention of the tax havens were on *any* of the links that you shared :)

 

Sorry, I was in a real mood yesterday. Didn't mean to take it out on you.

 

The link for the list should work? The UK territories I listed are the main ones which are used as tax havens IIRC.

 

This is the OECD's statement from their website:

 

https://www.oecd.org/tax/beps/130-countries...-tax-reform.htm

 

You can click the hyperlink there to view the list of countries/jurisdictions.