On the strength of recent “historic advances” on a minimum tax for multinationals, the Quebec forum on international tax competition and cooperation TaxCOOP is closing its doors with the feeling of duty accomplished and the desire of its co-founders to now turn to ” upcoming tax emergencies ”.
“Things seem to me sufficiently well started today so that we can invest in other files”, explains one of them, the tax specialist, professor and author Brigitte Alepin. She recalls that when the forum was created in 2014, it was not common to see a problem in the “tax war” between countries and no one dared to speak of a minimum tax. “We were talking about tax havens, banking secrecy, what we called ‘harmful tax practices’, but we didn’t seem ready to go and see what was behind it all. “
At the latest news, 137 countries and regions representing more than 90% of the world economy have joined the agreement reached at the G20 at the beginning of the summer on a minimum tax of 15% on the profits of multinationals which realize a number business of at least 750 million euros (CAN $ 1.07 billion) per year.
This agreement is far from perfect, agrees Lyne Latulippe, the second of the three co-founders of TaxCOOP, with the president of the administrative tribunal of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Louise Otis. In particular, the tax rate could be higher, and the number of companies to which it applies, much greater. We can also bet that companies and countries will soon find loopholes in the new rules and that they will seek to exploit them.
But this remains “a historic step forward,” said the professor and principal researcher at the Chair in Taxation and Public Finance at the University of Sherbrooke. “The idea of a minimum tax for multinationals was unthinkable only a few years ago. Now that this principle has been accepted, there will be no going back. It now remains to improve the application. “
A certain role
Brigitte Alepin is careful not to attribute the credit for this progress to TaxCOOP. However, she cannot help but think that the forum has nevertheless contributed a little, if only by bringing together experts from universities, the private sector, governments, international institutions and others around the issue. of civil society in turn in Montreal, at the headquarters of the World Bank, in Washington, that of the OECD, in Paris, or even that of the United Nations, in Geneva. “Our strength was to speak straight away about tax competition and to know how to show a certain neutrality, openness, determination and a lot, a lot of patience. “
Today, this contribution has earned the organization a tip of the hat from the principal responsible for these questions at the OECD, Pascal Saint-Amans. “Thank you and well done for launching, [comme organisation] of civil society, something that has been both critical and constructive, ”he said in a video interview to be released at TaxCOOP’s latest conference, a brief virtual announcement scheduled for Thursday. This last tour will feature around ten representatives of the rising generation of experts in the field in addition to giving rise to a book launch and a call for research projects to be funded.
The next emergencies
The co-founders of TaxCOOP now intend to turn their attention to “the next fiscal emergencies”. For Brigitte Alepin, it is particularly about these ultrariche who do not pay their fair share of tax. To know that the less than 3,000 billionaires in the world have a total wealth of almost US $ 15,000 billion and are subject to an effective tax rate (23%) lower than that of ordinary workers (24%) appears to him as shocking as the multinational tax scandal.
Lyne Latulippe, for her part, has difficulty seeing how the world could win its fight against climate change if countries fail to agree to one form or another of a common carbon tax. For the moment, says the OECD, 60% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the world are not subject to any form of pricing, and the rest is taxed at only 3 euros per tonne of GHGs, while it would take, according to experts, a minimum of 60 euros per tonne.
And then there are these 5 to 10 billion US $ hidden in charitable foundations in tax havens, continues Brigitte Alepin, and this idea of taxing robots and new digital technologies to counterbalance the damage they inflict on workers. . “There are plenty of pressing and stimulating issues. “