"G20 backs crackdown on multinationals’ use of tax havens", 10 July 2021

Finance chiefs of the G20 economies have endorsed a landmark move to stop multinationals shifting profits to tax havens and will also warn that Covid variants threaten the global economic recovery...

The tax deal was expected to be the biggest fresh policy initiative emerging from their talks. It caps eight years of wrangling over the issue. The aim is for national leaders to give it a final blessing at an October G20 summit in Rome.

The pact would establish a global minimum corporate tax of at least 15% to deter multinationals from shopping around for the lowest tax rate. It would also shift the way that highly profitable multinationals such as Amazon and Google are taxed, basing it partly on where they sell products and services, rather than on the location of their headquarters...

The G20 members account for more than 80% of global gross domestic product, 75% of global trade and 60% of the population of the planet. They include the US, Japan, Britain, France, Germany and India.

In addition to EU resisters Ireland, Estonia and Hungary, other countries that have not signed on include Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Barbados, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.