Well most of it.

Oddly Ireland, the big tech tax haven, decided not to back it.

Wierd that.

Oh please...

[1]UK overseas territories top list of world’s tax havens

The top 10 biggest enablers of global corporate tax abuse

1 British Virgin Islands (British overseas territory)

2 The Cayman Islands (British overseas territory)

3 Bermuda (British overseas territory)

4 Netherlands

5 Switzerland

6 Luxembourg

7 Hong Kong

8 Jersey (British crown dependency)

9 Singapore

10 United Arab Emirates

[1] https://iab.org.uk/uk-overseas-territories-top-list-of-worlds-tax-havens/

This is completely wrong.

They try to shift the blame to territories with better tax rates and call them "enablers". The truth is that every single country that allows multinational companies to pay IP fees (and use other schemes) to their parent companies and deduct these from tax are the enablers of this.

The tax problem could go overnight if HMRC called IP fees within the connected group of companies as non-deductible. You don't need any G20 meetings, champagne, fluff to get the result.

Some tax havens already reject companies that hold IP. Simply make transactions that are designed to avoid tax subject to tax.

> if HMRC called IP fees within the connected group of companies as non-deductible.

So if a movie or music or software company sells in the UK they pay 100% tax because they can't count the costs of the movie/music/software production because it was all IP ?

@IGotOut

"Oddly Ireland, the big tech tax haven, decided not to back it."

Good on em. Money does not belong to the government. Offering lower tax in one country keeps the thieving governments from ramping up tax in their own countries.

How screwed is Ireland when Scotland gets independance and joins the Eu?

It offers even lower corporate tax rates to US corporations and has whisky and golf courses.

How many "Irish" voters in Boston offset the number of voters with "their" own tartan?

@Yet Another Anonymous coward

"How screwed is Ireland when Scotland gets independance and joins the Eu?"

If Scotland decides to do that to themselves I expect there will be a lot of disbelief and sympathy as reality hits them. Independence is tough but joining the EU (or thinking they will even be accepted) is just economic suicide. Ireland will probably be sympathetically watching as will the rest of the world.

Funny. But the rest of the world outside Ireland considers the Irish to be thieves who are STEALING THEIR TAX REVENUE.

If adopted, it would go some way to ensure that large multinationals pay their fair share of tax in the countries they do business and introduce a global minimum rate that ensures companies pay at least 15 per cent tax on profit in each country they operate.

If it was fair, they wouldn't have to say fair.

This means all the tax avoidance schemes will continue to operate, business as usual, but the public will be lied to that the problem has been fixed.

Only difference it will make is that if a company doesn't manage to hide profit, they'll pay minimum 15% on that. Not sure where you learn your maths, but 15% of 0 (in most cases) is still 0.

According to Private Eye recently, the proposed rules, even if rigorously followed, may lead to the behemoths paying less tax than they do now. But at least they won't have to fiddle to reduce their tax bills. "Do no evil".

I'll believe that when I hear that, following the adoption of said proposals, Google/Facebook/Apple/etc is finally paying something in tax.

I guess there are plenty of accountants working on new creative things to avoid paying taxes. Add to this a lot of lobbyists pushing to have the aforementioned rules applied next century if not later.

Anyway, it goes into the good direction. Multinationals have an unfair advantage over SME when talking about taxes.

I'm not sure whether such a thing is possible in practice. Not unless we also have some sort of international exchequer.

With pressure mounting on Ireland to agree to this new tax "regime" they will cave-in sooner or later as, I suspect, some of their grants and subsidies could be withheld or stopped altogether.

Now, if/when they do, what will all those US companies with offices of convenience do next? My guess is just move to somewhere that did not sign up to countries such as the Caymans and others. Ireland knows how much the real loss would be which is why they are trying to hold out.

Maybe Ireland should consider leaving the EU (IEXIT) which would also solve the current customs problem with EU, UK and NI.....

Those companies need a presence in the EU - or any business of them won't happen inside the free trade area. Now say Apple can sell in Germany and record the sales profits in Ireland - because of free trade inside EU. That can't happen without a EU subsidiary, if they operate from Caymans it will undergo any rule for foreign trading with Caymans. Nor they could gather and store the "gold" of the early XXI century, user data, easily.

Because all EU country will be bound by the agreement, if it happens, they can't simply move to Luxembourg, Hungary, Bulgaria, Cyprus or Malta on pure tax benefits reasons. Unless they decide that without a big advantage is better to move to France or Germany directly to be closer to where decisions are made and lobby better.

But IMHO Ireland won't lose much business, it's being chosen because it's an English speaking country, it is close to UK and France, and flying to and from US is a little shorter.

But I guess there will be **someone** in Ireland that has a lot to lose personally if they can't help strike some "good deals" with US companies...

Those companies need a presence in the EU

This is nonsense. Most of those companies sell tat made in China. Chinese "companies" do not exactly need a presence in the EU, so why would US companies need it?

Because they need to pay duty and tariffs on the stuff from China, they just get away with it on your $1 phone case - they wouldn't if Tencent was selling $Bn of software in the Eu

EirExit would solve nothing in Eire/NI and would probably make things worse. Unlike the UK, Eire committed fully to the EU and has benefitted mightily from it, so they are very unlikely to leave. You also seem to have forgotten what Britain did to the Irish not that long ago. Trust me, they haven't forgotten.

As for these new tax rules, lets wait and see what happens. It can't get much worse than it currently is, and stands a small chance of actually working. Then all we need to do is find a way get fair taxes from the other serial tax avoiders. If they all paid their fair share, we would all pay less taxes.

@Big_Boomer

"Then all we need to do is find a way get fair taxes from the other serial tax avoiders. If they all paid their fair share, we would all pay less taxes."

I dont know of tax falling due to the government collecting more. I know the government has collected more by reducing some tax's. Amazingly without collecting this theoretical 'fair' amount of theft the govs still manage to spend more.

The only way we pay less tax is when the government is scared it will take less by charging more.

> You also seem to have forgotten what Britain did to the Irish not that long ago. Trust me, they haven't forgotten.

Are you talking about when a Scottish king invaded the north of the Island of Ireland and invited Scottish people to move there?

Or are you talking about potato blight? When the Peel government bought £100k of food from America to distribute in Ireland?

Why?

The likes of Bezos, Musk, Koch, and kin will simply buy the required votes in the US Congress to ensure that none of this applies in Good Ole Boy land.

Taxes are for the little people... not for the likes of them.

Tax fraud and evasion is not "efficiency"; it is evading your responsibilities, gaming the system, and I hope they put an end to it in spades.

The trillions the megacorps rake in without paying taxes just offloads the burden to the people. It is LONG past time people like Zuckerberg and Bezos opened their wallets - WIDE. And preferably while bending over for the IRS/CRA/??? in the nation in question like any other common citizen being audited.... :)