Biden calls for a single worldwide tax for large multinationals that evade

by time news

Joe Biden (source Lapresse)

Joe Biden, president for less than six months, is already bringing results and a great revolution. First and foremost the outcome on the pandemic, nearly 250 million Americans have received a dose or been vaccinated.

Now the democrat wants a change of pace on the fiscal policy of the country and beyond. His strategy focuses on a minimum corporate tax of 21% worldwide and has proposed that major multinationals pay taxes where they generate profits.

A radical departure from his predecessor, Donald Trump, who could finally put an end to the tax avoidance of large corporations, a vulnus that steals billions from the public purse.

According to the Tax Justice Network (TJN), countries do not receive 206,000 million euros each year because the profits of multinationals are placed on tax havens. Under the new tax policy, multinationals would be taxed at the minimum rate even if they shift their profits to a zero-tax jurisdiction.

The topic of avoidance has a long history in the past. As early as 1933, the New York Times revealed that banker JP Morgan had not paid a dollar in income taxes in 1931 and 1932.

And the book by two economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, The Triumph of Injustice (Taurus, 2021), confirms that the situation is almost unchanged compared to the past and perhaps has now even worsened as digitalization and globalization help fiscal engineering more creative aimed at paying less taxes.

The American proposal, pushed by the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, is part of a broader plan that also includes an increase in the national tax on corporations and setting an effective minimum rate of 15% on after-tax profits.

If the US proposal were to pass, there would be a collapse of tax havens “It would not make sense for them to offer low tax rates and the high global minimum tax can change the face of globalization, causing multinationals to pay more in taxes, instead of paying less and less than what has happened in the last four. decades ”confirm the spokespersons of the Treasury Department.

The US proposal, welcomed by the entire European Community, is a step forward to force multinationals to pay taxes where they produce profits, even if they do not have a physical presence.

The US request represents a drastic change that could slow the level of tax avoidance around the world. “The OECD process has been going on for years with little real progress. Not because the solutions were not known, but because in the end the political will was not strong enough among the developed countries. Now the pressure from Biden is strong and the rules of the game could change”Confirm many international political observers.

Governments and citizens of the world who pay their taxes honestly have the right to see that, finally, an end to such a strong and immoral imbalance allowed by large multinationals. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is warned.

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