The fifteen percenters
Finance ministers from the G7 group of leading economies are meeting in London to come to agreement on taxation of multinational companies. Some nations are upset that their taxation greed is driving multinational companies to find more tax-efficient countries to establish themselves.
I don't have any sympathy with tax-dodging
companies, but I can't say that I blame companies for tax optimisation
either. After all, who wants to pay more tax than they have to? And if some countries have wised up to the idea that a lower percentage of a lot is better than a higher percentage of nothing, that seems little short of common sense.
Nevertheless, German finance minister Olaf Scholz may be getting ideas above his station when he opines that the deal would change the world
.
He said a 15% rate would help pay back debts that have built up during the pandemic - and that he was "absolutely confident" there would be an agreement. "If we agree on the minimum taxation for corporates, this will help to go out of this race to the bottom we see with taxes today," he told the BBC. "And this will help the countries we live in to finance their tasks, and - especially after Covid crisis and all the money we spent - to defend the health of the people, and to defend the economy."
Because governments can be so trusted to not piss tax revenue down the drain. (rolleyes)