Janet Yellen calls for a global minimum tax on companies. Could it happen?
Many countries want to link a deal to the trickier issue of taxing rights on profits
CORPORATE TAXATION is one of the thorniest issues in international economic policy. Janet Yellen, President Joe Biden’s treasury secretary, and a former head of the Federal Reserve, is duly weighing in. On April 5th she grabbed the attention of the occupants of corner offices worldwide with a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The headline was a call for countries to agree on a global minimum tax rate for large companies.
Such a levy, Ms Yellen said, would help “make sure the global economy thrives based on a more level playing field”, and would help end a “30-year race to the bottom”. Though the idea of a minimum tax raises hackles in tax havens in the Caribbean, parts of Europe and farther afield, many other big economies will welcome America’s renewed commitment to multilateralism on tax after the prickly unilateralism of the Trump years.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline "Setting a floor"
Finance & economics April 10th 2021
- House prices in the rich world are booming
- The IMF marks up the global recovery
- Janet Yellen calls for a global minimum tax on companies. Could it happen?
- Coinbase goes public with a pop
- Totting up bitcoin’s environmental costs
- As China’s stockmarket corrects, regulators try doing less
- Robert Mundell, an influential international economist, has died
- In poor countries, statistics are both undersupplied and underused
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