The lack of international coordination to impose a reform on the taxation of multinationals poses “risks of tax evasion”, fears the OECD in a report published Thursday with new data.
Signed by a hundred countries under the aegis of the international institution based in Paris at the end of 2021, the agreement on minimum corporate taxation and a better distribution of rights to tax these groups is slow to be adopted due to blockages in certain regions, including Europe.
However, “new data from the OECD highlights the risks of tax evasion” by these large groups, the OECD warned in the latest annual edition of its corporate tax statistics, published on Thursday. .
According to its analysis, carried out in 160 countries and jurisdictions and incorporating country-by-country declarations of activities carried out by nearly 7,000 multinational companies, the average turnover achieved per employee is abnormally higher within jurisdictions applying a rate of zero taxation on companies compared to those applying a positive rate.
The median value of turnover per employee is thus 2 million dollars where the tax rate on profits is zero, against “barely” 300,000 dollars in jurisdictions where it is greater than zero, calculated the OECD.
The international organization also shows in its report that the detailed analysis of the turnover of groups located in investment centers, in comparison with groups located elsewhere, gives indications of potential practices for exploiting mismatches between tax systems.
The situation is all the more problematic, according to the OECD, since corporate taxation “remains an important source of tax revenue for most countries, particularly in developing and emerging market economies”.
It is on average 18.8% of total tax revenue in Africa, 18.2% in Asia-Pacific, and 15.8% in Latin America and the Caribbean, compared to 9.6% in the member countries of the OECD, which mainly includes developed countries.
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While Hungary blocks the adoption of the reform on the minimum taxation of multinationals at the EU level, five European countries, including France and Germany, affirmed in September their will to implement the minimum tax 15% on the profits of multinationals from 2023.
The global minimum tax is only one part, called pillar 2, of the OECD agreement.
The first pillar, which targets digital giants in particular, provides for the taxation of companies where they make their profits to put an end to certain tax evasion practices. It requires an international agreement which is not yet finalized.