Finance Ministers Call For Global Political Agreement On Minimum Corporate Tax By July 9

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th June, 2021) Finance ministers of the United States, Germany, Mexico, Indonesia and South Africa on Thursday called for the international community to make a decision on a global minimum corporate tax by the next meeting of G20 finance chiefs from July 9-10.

In an op-ed published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily and the Washington Post, the five ministers said that unprecedented progress had already been made to end a "race to the bottom" in corporate taxation but more action was needed to free up funds that would help tackle the pandemic.

"Expectations are high, and understandably our citizens have expressed urgency. We call on all countries in the international negotiations to come together in a political agreement in line with the agreed timeline and ahead of the G-20 finance ministers meeting next month," they said.

This comes less than a week after the G7 group of some of the world's most developed economies agreed to close cross-border loopholes in taxation that allowed multinationals to shop for the lowest tax rates in tax havens.

They propose fixing the global tax rate at 15% and splitting revenues between countries where these corporations operate.

US' Janet Yellen, Germany's Olaf Scholz, Mexico's Arturo Herrera, Indonesia's Mulyani Indrawati and South Africa's Tito Mboweni said this would level the playing field and help low-wage workers and small businesses who had disproportionately borne the brunt of the pandemic.

"This year, nations have a historic opportunity to end the race to the bottom in corporate taxation, restoring government resources at a time when they are most needed... This minimum tax would put a floor on tax competition and ensure corporations pay their fair share of tax," they said.

Some 139 countries are now working toward fairer distribution of corporate tax revenues under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and G20. More recently, the scheme was supported by the BRICS club of the five largest emerging economies.