Some large tech companies are reacting relatively positively to the news that they will now have to pay more taxes.
After the G7 agrees on a minimum corporate tax of fifteen percent, Facebook, Amazon and Google react positively.
Facebook and Google tell Reuters they are pleased with the progress and work done by the G7. “We want international tax reform to succeed and recognize that this means Facebook pays more taxes in different places,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s head of global affairs, said on Twitter.
Amazon sees the new rules as “a welcome step forward,” the company told Fox Business. However, it does qualify its support for a process led by the OECD rather than the seven largest economies.
In recent days, the G7 has reached an agreement to better tax large multinationals. In recent decades, many of them have avoided mainly taxes by sending profits through countries where the tax rate was much lower. Or by paying profits from national subsidiaries as royalties to the parent company.
The struggle to get all countries on the same page for this has been going on for years. This can partly explain the fact that the companies welcome more clarity. For example, the EU has been trying for years to get a similar tax on its feet. Still, individual member states are also toying with the idea of introducing such a ‘digital tax’ in anticipation of European (or more global) legislation.
But what those laws will look like in practice and whether that means that more taxes will flow to different countries remains to be seen.
