Agreement for a global tax on multinationals at the G20: low-income states do not sign

The G20 in Rome, which took place on October 30 and 31, ends with the traditional family photo in front of the Trevi fountain.

The heads of state throw the coin that brings luck, the one that will promote the achievement of negotiated agreements?

REUTERS - GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

The global tax on multinationals was endorsed at the G20 summit which ends this Sunday in Rome.

From 2023, the largest companies will be taxed at 15% in all signatory countries.

The objective is to fight against tax havens.

The rich countries welcome this agreement, but in the low-income countries, some states have refused to sign it.

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With our special correspondent in Rome,

Dominique Baillard

Nigeria and Kenya have refused to endorse this global tax negotiated within the framework of the OECD, as have Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

As a reminder, 136 OECD countries (90% of world GDP),

meeting in Budapest at the beginning of October

, voted in favor of this major reform of the international tax system which will allow the application of a minimum tax rate of 15% to multinational companies from 2023.

Worldwide, the average corporate tax rate is 22%.

In sub-Saharan Africa, it is even more: 25.5% on average.

To accept a lower rate is to take the risk of losing tax revenue rather than having the hope of reaping new ones.

For Ricardo Moro, the sherpa representing NGOs within the G20, the device does not sufficiently take into account the interests of southern countries and has been softened under pressure from European tax havens, Ireland, Estonia and Hungary. : “ 

The countries we call tax havens normally use a percentage of 12%.

So going to 15% is almost nothing for tax havens that already do it.

If we want to be controversial, we could say that we have turned everyone into tax havens.

 "

Read also: 

Agreement on global taxation: "More than a breakthrough, it's a change of world"

The other objection is the perimeter of the tax.

The latter will be calculated according to the turnover achieved in a country, which is why it will first benefit the richest countries, the countries where we consume the most.

According to the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Tax (ICRICT), a think tank including renowned economists such as Joseph Stiglitz or Thomas Piketty or Eva Joly, the text is a " 

discount agreement 

" including " 

the the lion's share goes to rich countries 

”.

The organization had published in the daily

Le Monde

, in mid-October, a column calling for the renegotiation of the Budapest agreement to make it more favorable to the countries of the South.

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