The administration of US President Joe Biden has given the green light to a global minimum tax project sponsored by the OECD, which should undermine the techniques of large companies setting up their headquarters in tax havens.

Europe 1 explains why it could be a revolution. 

DECRYPTION

It is a real fiscal big bang that is shaping up for the months to come.

In the United States, the Biden administration gave the green light for a global minimum tax, a project supported by the OECD for years but which was blocked by Donald Trump.

It could bring tens of billions of euros each year into state coffers, now sheltered by multinationals in tax havens.

Europe 1 explains how. 

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GAFA set up their head offices in tax havens

Today, many companies, particularly the biggest and the most profitable, in particular the famous American GAFAs - Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon -, set up their head offices where taxation is very low.

But these are countries in which these companies make very little turnover, such as, to cite only the European examples, Ireland or Luxembourg.

But if this reform passes, the practice becomes much less interesting, since there will be a tax in all countries - the idea being to make companies pay taxes wherever they make big profits.

If this measure enters into force, the GAFA will thus be obliged to pay taxes on the reality of what is really sold in France, and everywhere else, which changes everything. 

Tens of thousands of euros could be recovered

And such a tax would affect all businesses, not just digital ones.

For example, it would be a game-changer for the Starbucks group, which has also played a lot in recent years on tax optimization.

Put end to end, tens of billions of euros could go into the coffers and constitute a small aid to help pay the bill for the Covid-19 - this is what also allowed this reform to move forward.

But beware, several obstacles remain to be overcome for this reform to take effect - in particular, the rate of this overall tax will have to be defined.

On the OECD side, they say they hope to bring the project to fruition by autumn.