While, a few days before the presidential election, the McKinsey affair embarrasses Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Republic candidate for his succession hoped that salvation would come in part from Brussels. The Europeans have indeed been discussing for several weeks a draft directive which would introduce a minimum tax of 15% for companies whose turnover exceeds 750 million euros and which would therefore allow, wants to believe the Head of State , to force McKinsey to pay taxes in France.
Emmanuel Macron was counting on the finance ministers of the Twenty-Seven, who met in Luxembourg on Tuesday April 5, to find an agreement on the subject. Even though Bruno Le Maire put all his energy and know-how to obtain results, he did not achieve his goals.
Several Member States – Estonia, Malta and Sweden – which had expressed their reluctance at the last Ecofin meeting on March 15, obtained adjustments, including the assurance that the text would enter into force not on March 1er January, but on December 31, 2023. They therefore lifted their objections on Tuesday, as Hungary had already done in March. There remains Poland which, today, is alone in opposing the introduction of minimum taxation for multinationals. In fact, Warsaw is thus blocking the text since, in matters of taxation, Community decisions are taken unanimously.
“Another reason” for blocking
During the meeting of finance ministers, Bruno Le Maire attempted a show of force, hoping that it would bring Warsaw back to a more constructive attitude. Ministers or representatives from fifteen countries – Estonia, Malta, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Latvia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Croatia, Portugal, Ireland – spoke in support of the draft directive. The French Minister then gave the floor to Magdalena Rzeczkowska, Polish Secretary of State for Finance, who read a text, in a monotone and visibly uncomfortable tone, to reiterate her refusal.
“It has been five years since the President of the Republic and I have been fighting for there to be a minimum taxation of corporate tax that is put in place in Europe”, recalled Bruno Le Maire on Tuesday. In October 2021, 136 OECD countries agreed on this objective, which the Europeans therefore decided to translate into a directive as quickly as possible. They also agreed that the digital giants and other multinationals pay taxes in the countries where they earn money and do not ship all their profits under more lenient skies.
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