What in the World Is a Global Minimum Tax?

For years, large corporations have exploited international tax laws to pay less taxes. But last year, 137 countries backed a potential solution: a 15 percent corporate tax applied regardless of a company’s location. The reform could raise global tax revenues by more than $150 billion a year, but as advocates garner political support, there are significant roadblocks.

 

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Host
  • Gabrielle Sierra
    Director, Podcasting
Credits

Asher Ross - Supervising Producer

Markus Zakaria - Audio Producer and Sound Designer

Rafaela Siewert - Associate Podcast Producer

Episode Guests
  • Richard Rubin
    U.S. Tax Policy Reporter, Wall Street Journal
  • Shu-Yi Oei
    Professor, Boston College Law School

Show Notes

Multinational corporations worldwide are facing increasing frustration from critics who say they use a cocktail of loopholes such as profit shifting, deductions, and credits to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. As consensus grows, an unprecedented idea emerged: a global minimum tax floor of 15 percent that would apply to the world’s largest multinational corporations. The change could bring a massive increase in revenue for governments around the world. But this effort would require remarkable international cooperation, and the U.S. midterm elections and unfolding changes in Europe could prevent governments from unifying behind the idea.

 

 

From CFR 

 

Andrew Chatzky, “France’s Tech Tax: What to Know

 

Anshu Siripurapu, “Corporate Taxes in a Globalized World

 

Brad W. Setser, “The Irish Shock to U.S. Manufacturing?,” Follow the Money

 

 

From Our Guests

 

Richard Rubin, “Biden’s Budget Would Reshape His International Tax Plan to Match Global Deal,” Wall Street Journal

 

Richard Rubin, “Global Tax Deal Would Undercut U.S. Tax Breaks, Businesses Warn,Wall Street Journal

 

Shuyi Oei, “World Tax Policy in the World Tax Polity? An Event History Analysis of OECD/G20 BEPS Inclusive Framework Membership,” Yale Journal of International Law

 

 

Read More

 

Alan Rappeport, “A Global Tax Deal Is at Hand. Here’s How It Would Work.,” New York Times

 

Emma Agyemang and Sam Fleming, “Poland blocks EU move to sign up to minimum corporate tax,” Financial Times 

 

Jeff Stein and Seung Min Kim, “Biden, other G-20 world leaders formally endorse groundbreaking global corporate minimum tax,” Washington Post

 

Key Elements of the U.S. Tax System,” Tax Policy Center

 

Laura Davison, “Trump’s Tax Law Failed to Kill Off Corporate America’s Prized Dodge,” Bloomberg

 

Liz Alderman, “Ireland’s Days as a Tax Haven May Be Ending, but Not Without a Fight,” New York Times

 

Rhett Buttle, “The Global Minimum Tax Agreement: Why It Matters For America’s Small Businesses,” Forbes

 

Shira Ovide, “How Big Tech Won the Pandemic,” New York Times

 

William Horobin and Bryce Baschuk, “Why ‘Digital Taxes’ Are the New Trade War Flashpoint,” Bloomberg 

 

 

Watch and Listen

 

What is the global minimum corporate tax?,” CNBC International

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