Historic agreement of the G20 countries for an international taxation of multinationals

They said “yes”, in a Venice deprived of its usual streams of tourists and placed under high security. At the end of two days of negotiations in the capital of the Veneto, Friday 9 and Saturday 10 July, the finance ministers of the G20 countries – the 19 richest countries and the European Union – gave the political green light to the implementation, from 2023, of a major global tax reform. A decisive step, which must still be confirmed, in October, by the formal agreement of the heads of state of the G20 and, at the global level, by the rallying of a handful of countries still resistant, including, in Europe, the Ireland, a notorious tax haven.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), prime contractor for the reform, has already managed to embark on board the project 132 of the 139 member countries of the “Inclusive Framework” – the working group where advanced countries and developing discuss tax issues. Until then opposed to the project, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, tax haven in the Caribbean, has indeed announced its late rally on Friday.

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True fiscal aggiornamento, the reform politically validated in Venice rests on two pillars: the creation of a world minimum tax of at least 15%, for the companies of more than 750 million euros of turnover; and the redistribution of 20 to 30% of the “surplus” profits of the hundred largest and most profitable multinationals, to the benefit of so-called “market” countries, in which they do business without having a presence there. Among them, all GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) without exclusion, champions of super profits and tax optimization. The world minimum tax must return, by itself, 150 billion dollars per year in the coffers of the States.

“There is no going back any more”

“This is a major political outcome, declare to World the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, it is the end of 30 years of fiscal dumping, and it is the first time that the G20 has reached such a concrete agreement in the fiscal field, there is no going back ”. In their final communiqué released on Saturday, the members of the G20 welcome a “Historic agreement on a more just and stable international tax architecture” and call on all countries to finalize the technical modalities of this reform by October.

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