Yellen to Press G20 for Higher Minimum Corporate Tax Rate

United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will press Group of 20 (G20) counterparts this week for a global minimum corporate tax rate above the 15 percent floor to which 130 countries agreed last week, but a rate decision is not expected until future phases of negotiations, US Department of the Treasury officials said on Tuesday.

The specific rate, and potential exemptions, are among issues still to be determined after 130 countries reached an historic agreement at a Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) meeting last week, Aljazeera said on Tuesday.

The countries outlined a global minimum tax and the reallocation of taxing rights for large, highly profitable multinational firms. The deal is widely expected to be endorsed by G20 finance leaders when they meet on Friday and Saturday in Venice.

Negotiations on the global minimum tax rate, aimed for completion by the G20 leaders’ summit in October, is tied to the outcome of legislation to raise the US minimum tax rate, a Treasury official said.

The Biden administration has proposed doubling the US minimum tax on overseas corporations’ intangible income to 21% along with a new companion “enforcement” tax that would deny deductions to companies for tax payments to countries that fail to adopt the new global minimum rate.

The officials said several countries were pushing for a rate above 15%, along with the US. Yellen has been working with tax-writing committees in the US Congress to include such provisions in budget “reconciliation” legislation, to align US tax laws with the new international tax goals.

Democrats in Congress have said they plan to pursue such legislation, expected to include new social program investments and tax increases on US corporations and wealthy Americans, without Republican votes if necessary. Republicans have vowed to fight any US tax increases.

The officials said the Treasury’s legislative proposals for reallocating taxation rights have been carefully crafted to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans.

The plans mark a shift from traditional headquarters-based taxation to allow countries where the largest and most profitable US firms sell products and services to tax a portion of those profits. The treasury would also be able to tax part of the profits of large foreign firms selling into the US.

The official said that the positives from the deal include ensuring no loss of US tax revenues and ending foreign countries’ digital services taxes aimed at US technology giants.