MNCs have gotten away with paying less taxes. That must change
07/11/19
REUTERS/File Photos
NEW YORK CITY: In the face of global outrage at the low or no taxes paid by some of the world's largest multinational corporations (MNCs), the Group of 20 appointed the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) a few years ago to design alternatives to end these abuses.
In response, the OECD put forward proposals for a new international tax system that could be imposed on the world in the coming decades last month.
WHEN MNCS PAY LITTLE TAXES
This is a serious issue.
In the United States, for example, 60 of the 500 largest companies, including Amazon, Netflix and General Motors, paid no taxes whatsoever in 2018, despite a cumulative profit of US$79 billion dollars, because the current system allows them to do so, and in a completely legal way.
These misappropriations are based on complex arrangements but on a very simple principle. The multinational only has to play with the allocation of declared profits between its various subsidiaries.
This way, it shows deficits where taxes are relatively high - even if it is in those countries that the company generates the bulk of its activities - to report high profits in jurisdictions where taxes are very low, or even zero - even if in reality the company has no customers there.
The picturesque Italian enclave on the shores of Switzerland's Lake Lugano is a tax haven. (Photo: AFP/Fabrice COFFRINI)
As a result, every year, developing countries lose at least US$100 billion, hidden by companies in tax havens. Globally, this diverts 40 per cent of foreign profits from multinationals, according to economist Gabriel Zucman.
A NEW INTERNATIONAL TAX SYSTEM
With the accelerated digitalisation of the economy, the amounts diverted are constantly increasing, as highlighted by many institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
But the most important move came from the OECD that proposed, earlier this year, to challenge the very foundation of the international tax system, which is the ability of multinationals to report their profits in the subsidiary of their choice.
After decades of inaction, the process could move forward very quickly. After the publication of its first proposal in this field, the organisation will make a final one in 2020, laying the base for the new international tax system.
After that date, the die will be cast, and it will be practically impossible to influence the reform process.
That is why we need to raise the alarm for developing countries. They can no longer say that they have no voice in the process.
OECD Secretary-General Jose Angel Gurria pictured Oct 1, 2019. (Photo: AFP/John MACDOUGALL)
The OECD has offered them a place at the negotiating table by creating a group called the "Inclusive Framework". With 134 members, this is the arena where tomorrow's global tax system will be decided.
Unfortunately, despite its name, we do not play on an equal terms within this "Inclusive Framework". Rich countries have more human, political and financial resources to make their views prevail.
With the largest concentration of multinationals, they are also those most influenced by the pressure of the corporate world, at the expense of their own citizens and the rest of the world.
But by refusing to realise what is at stake, developing countries are also failing in their responsibilities.
NEW TAX SYSTEM CONSIDERS WHERE PROFITS ARE GENERATED
The OECD reform proposal is based on two "pillars". The first is to establish clearly where corporate profits are generated for tax purposes.
The ideal, for which the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), the tax reform commission I chair, has been fighting for years, would be to consider multinationals as single companies, whose total profit should be taxed where they operate according to objective factors, such as sales, employment, resources and digital users.
In this field, however, the OECD's proposals are neither ambitious nor fair enough.
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso listens to OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria during a G20 symposium on international taxation, Jun 8, 2019. (Photo: Toshifumi Kitamura/Pool via REUTERS)
The share of profits that would be redistributed internationally would be limited to the so-called “residual” share of the multinationals' total profits.
Worse still, this principle would only apply to very large multinationals and the allocation of these profits would depend solely on the volume of sales, excluding employment or other factors that would favor developing countries.
CALLS FOR A MINIMUM CORPORATE TAX AT A GLOBAL LEVEL
The second pillar is the establishment of an effective minimum corporate tax at the global level. Some developing countries fear that by abandoning the weapon of tax incentives, they will no longer be able to attract companies.
Yet, the evidence that these incentives attract investment is controversial, according to IMF research. Even more importantly, if the international community agrees on a sufficiently high rate (ICRICT pleads for at least 25 per cent, the average rate in developed countries), this would put an end to the race to the bottom that we are witnessing, whose only winners are the multinationals.
This measure would remove the raison d'être of tax havens, while ensuring that all states have access to those resources essential for development.
In the absence of an international consensus, some countries have chosen to find compensation solutions. This is the case of France, which will tax 3 per cent of the turnover of companies in the digital sector.
Others, such as Mexico, are considering the possibility of forcing platforms such as Uber or Netflix to pay value-added tax on services provided in the country.