The European Union’s promise to enter a global deal to set a minimum tax rate for multinational corporations at 15 per cent is expected to lead to a flurry of implementation around the world.
Achim Bruce, acting deputy director at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Tax Center, said the approval of the directive last week was a “major moment” for the deal’s success and would have a “domino effect,” causing other countries to accelerate efforts to implement the measure.
Plans, which were floated at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, were agreed by 136 countries in October last year to implement a minimum tax of 15 percent. But progress in implementing the word has been slow, as none of the signatories have yet signed the Pledge Act.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development views the directive as key to making taxation work because of the EU’s large number of multinational corporations, but Warsaw and Budapest traded it in to block the legislation.
The UK, South Korea and Switzerland have already produced a draft
legislation, while the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and
Singapore launched a consultation on OECD rules. Eight other countries have officially expressed their support for the tax. However, none of them had finished their execution plans.
The Council of the European Union, made up of ministers from member states, on Thursday approved a directive to impose a minimum tax on large multinational companies, ending months of fraught negotiations.
EU countries must now translate the proposals in the Directive into domestic legislation by the end of 2023. Failure to do so could result in a country being referred to the European Court of Justice.
Peter Barnes, a tax specialist at Washington law firm Kaplan & Drysdale, said the EU agreement “has been absolutely fantastic” and provides “cover for other countries that support global minimum taxes but don’t want to be the first to act.”
Julian Viner, director of taxation at law firm Clifford Chance, said:
The EU agreement would “spread adoption more widely”.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates that between 1,800 and 2,000 firms
It is headquartered in the European Union within the scope of global taxation
A total of about 8,000.
The tax deal was part of a broader package of measures agreed at last week’s EU leaders’ summit.
The deal, designed to crack down on tax evasion and end a race to the bottom in corporate taxes, will apply to all multinational companies with annual revenues of more than 750 million euros.
The next two to three months, Fenner said, will be an “important window” for states to adopt the tax, allowing businesses and authorities enough time to prepare before the deadline.
The tax is expected to raise an additional $150 billion annually worldwide. The tax is also designed to have spillover effects, as countries risk losing revenue if they don’t implement it. Financial authorities that adhere to the minimum tax can generate additional revenue by imposing a tax of up to 15 percent on the income of foreign subsidiaries located in countries that do not comply with the deal.
The United States attempted to introduce the 15 percent minimum earlier this year, however Delete important items of the OECD agreement, including measures aimed at eliminating the practice of multinational corporations setting up subsidiaries in tax havens.
Barnes said it would be “extremely difficult for US companies” to comply with both US and OECD rules, and the EU decision “should prompt” the US Congress to seek harmonization of the regulations. He added that doing so would ease the burden on multinational companies that have to comply with multiple tax laws instead of a single global standard.
Progress on a deal many in the tax industry believe is doomed comes at a critical time for the OECD. The organization’s tax department has also come under attack from some developing countries for creating a framework that was “non-comprehensive” and was too complex to manage, according to Christine Kim, a tax professor at Cardozo College of Law in New York.
Countries in Africa, many of which have not signed the OECD agreement, are increasingly turning to the United Nations for a greater voice in global tax matters. A resolution put forward by the African Group, one of the five UN regional groups, to draft proposals for a possible UN agreement on taxation, was passed in November.