The current meeting of G7 finance ministers gives hope for a commitment to a minimum global tax.
The French Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire estimated this Friday, June 4 that the proposal for a global threshold of 15% for corporate tax represented a “minimum”.
This rate, proposed by the United States , “it is a minimum, for us, it is a starting point,” he told a few journalists on the sidelines of the G7 Finance in London.
“We want with our partners from the G7, the G20 and the OECD to try to have a more ambitious rate,” he added, while the meeting of G7 finance ministers gives hope for a commitment to a tax global minimum and a better distribution of tax revenues from multinationals, particularly digital giants.
“If we have an agreement tomorrow (Saturday), it will be a historic step forward”, underlined the French minister. “If there is this G7 agreement tomorrow, it will give considerable impetus to the G20 negotiations,” he added.
On the other hand “if tomorrow morning we fail”, it will be, according to him, “complicated” then to “find a dynamic”, fearing in this case that an agreement will be postponed “until Greek calendar”.
“Deadlock”
The “blockages” in the current negotiations relate “to the level of taxation”, he said.
“We need new financial resources, the main beneficiaries of this crisis ( from the coronavirus editor’s note ) are the digital giants who have made considerable profits”, he added, “it is time to put in place a taxation ”of the digital sector.
According to him, the current crisis shows that “tax evasion, the race towards the lowest possible level of taxation”, constitutes “a dead end”.
The great powers of the G7 (United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Japan, Germany, United States), led by a renewed interest of the American administration on the question since the coming to power of Joe Biden, want achieve a global reform of corporate tax in the spirit of the work undertaken within the OECD.
In a column published this Friday by the British daily The Guardian , the finance ministers of Germany, France, Spain and Italy said that “the chance to reach an agreement is at hand” for the G20 Finance in July.