WASHINGTON – The Biden administration has congratulated itself on what Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called a historic piece of “economic diplomacy,” after 130 countries representing 90% of global GDP agreed in principle on a global minimum tax rate on corporations.
The agreement, whose signatories included China, Russia, India, and every member of the G-20, agreed to impose a minimum tax of at least 15% on corporations in an effort aimed at preventing what Yellen has frequently called a “race to the bottom” between countries trying to lure companies to their shores by dangling low tax rates.
“No nation has won this race,” Yellen said in a statement issued Thursday. “Lower tax rates have not only failed to attract new businesses, they have also deprived countries of funding for important investments like infrastructure, education, and efforts to combat the pandemic. In the United States, this agreement will ensure that corporations shoulder a fair share of that burden.”
US leadership key to deal
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has been fighting since 2013 to come to some sort of arrangement that would rationalize the tax treatment of global corporations throughout the world. The aim has always been to capture the hundreds of billions of dollars in tax…
