London (AFP)

G7 finance ministers hope to announce a "historic" deal Saturday on a global minimum tax and a better distribution of tax revenues from multinationals, especially digital giants, after a two-day meeting in London.

"If we have an agreement (Saturday), it will be a historic step forward," French Minister Bruno Le Maire said Friday evening to some journalists on the sidelines of the meeting, the first in person since the start of the pandemic.

Rishi Sunak, the finance minister of the United Kingdom, the country which currently holds the presidency of the G7, for his part estimated on Friday that the group had conducted "productive negotiations on the reform of the global tax system" and the challenges of the digital economy ".

It is largely aimed at large tech companies, which pay paltry taxes despite profits of tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars, by locating in countries where the corporate tax rate is very low, if not zero.

These digital giants have benefited from the crisis and "reaped benefits of an unparalleled level compared to other sectors," noted Friday in a joint forum in the Guardian Mr. Le Maire and his German, Italian and Spanish counterparts.

And this, at a time when states around the world are seeking to replenish their coffers emptied by economic support or recovery programs in the face of the pandemic.

"Before the crisis it was difficult to understand, after the crisis, it is impossible to accept", argues a European source.

The OECD proposes a reform based on two pillars: on the one hand, a better distribution of the right to tax multinationals where they generate their turnover.

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On the other hand, a minimum tax rate on corporate profits.

The United States, after having first mentioned 21%, have revised their copy and now speak of 15%, in the hope of rallying more countries.

Negotiations were still going on hard on this point on Friday evening.

For Bruno Le Maire, the 15% threshold for corporate tax represented a "minimum".

- "Considerable momentum" -

"We want with our partners from the G7, the G20 and the OECD to try to have a more ambitious rate," he added, before concluding that "if there is an agreement from the G7 (Saturday) , this will give considerable impetus to the G20 negotiations ", referring to the July meeting in Venice.

On the other hand, he warned, "if we fail" on Saturday, it will be, according to him, "complicated" then to "regain momentum in the G20", and an agreement may be postponed "until Greek calendar".

For Quentin Parrinello, of the NGO Oxfam, "a rate of 15% would be largely insufficient" and "an agreement without mentioning a specific rate would be a real failure" which would set back several years.

Most players know that they will then have to rally the G20 countries and then the almost 140 countries working on the tax reform project within the bosom of the OECD.

The challenge will be to convince countries that have built their economies on particularly low corporate tax rates like Ireland, which has thus attracted the European headquarters of many multinationals, especially in technology and the pharmacy, and often American.

Their activity weighs very heavily in Irish GDP: it jumped 7.8% in the first quarter thanks to these companies, while without them, it would have fallen by 1% because of health restrictions.

According to a European source, the EU will have to find a way to help countries like Ireland find another economic model.

For Bruno Le Maire, the current crisis shows that "tax evasion, the race towards the lowest possible level of taxation" constitute "a dead end".

© 2021 AFP