The signs for global tax reform are good.
Germany is one of the drivers of a minimum tax that is intended to prevent manipulation on the financial markets in the future.
Lisbon - Will the perfidious tax evasion of numerous large companies soon come to an end?
At the meeting of the European finance ministers in Portugal, the planned uniform global minimum tax was discussed.
The result creates hope that the tax avoidance strategies used by international corporations to save money will soon end.
As of now, it would be a globally applicable tax rate of 15 percent.
Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz * described the rapprochement as a “breakthrough” and is in good spirits, which nourishes an early agreement.
France's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire described the talks as a “good compromise” and called for an agreement at the latest at the G20 meeting on July 9th and 10th in Italy.
Global minimum tax: New momentum thanks to a change of government in the USA
Germany and France in particular have for years been advocates of an international solution aimed at creating fairer conditions on the financial markets. Interestingly, the new US administration under President Joe Biden is also of the opinion that a globally applicable minimum tax rate should apply. This became clear the day before during negotiations at the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The US Treasury is even aiming for higher taxation after the Donald Trump * era. The fact that, from the point of view of the USA, "the discussion should now start at an international level at 15 percent" is, however, "great progress", judged social democrat Scholz on the sidelines of the meeting of euro finance ministers in Lisbon. That makes it “realistic” that an “ambitious” sentence could be agreed. The 15 percent are "a lower limit and the discussions should continue to be ambitious and increase the tax rate," it said.
The rate would be lower than current tax rates in most European countries. In Germany it is almost 30 percent. Not all countries are sympathetic to a globally uniform minimum tax for companies. Countries like Ireland and Luxembourg, for example, benefit from the fact that, through generous interpretations, they waive large amounts of money for multinationals.
Pierre Gramegna, Minister of Finance of Luxembourg, described the discussion as "still open".
However, he was ready to talk and explained that a common level would make life “easier for everyone”.
For some time now, the world's most important industrial nations have been grappling with a minimum tax for large corporations.
Amazon, for example, does not pay a cent in taxes in the EU *.
The topic has been on the agenda for years, but it also failed because of the Trump administration.
Global minimum tax: Internet companies such as Google, Amazon and Co. in their sights
The main problem: Many regions of the world have too little tax revenue, although considerable profits are made there. A major sticking point of the looming minimum tax in this regard is the digital age. Displeasure is caused by the fact that internet companies in particular pay too few taxes in the markets they serve. US giants such as Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft in particular have been criticized for this.
The OECD negotiations also deal with the core question of whether companies have to pay tax on profits made in every country in which they are made - regardless of where they are headquartered. However, this could have an impact on other sectors: Washington is expected to then also want to include other branches of the economy and globally successful companies such as Germany's automaker.
(PF with dpa / AFP) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA