The French Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire said on Friday that he was “determined to move forward” on global taxation of the richest, despite the opposition displayed the day before by his American counterpart to international negotiations on this subject.
“I am totally determined to move forward” on this subject, declared Mr. Le Maire in response to a question from AFP on the sidelines of the G7 Finances in Stresa in northern Italy.
The day before, barely arriving in Stresa, the American Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen had spoken out against “an international tax negotiation” on this project defended by Brazil on the occasion of its presidency of the G20 and supported by France.
Bruno Le Maire wanted to put the scope of the American opposition into perspective: “It was the same thing that the United States said when it came to taxing the digital giants (…) Ultimately, we We managed to reach an agreement,” he argued.
“We had the same question on minimum taxation (…) there were disagreements. We overcame these disagreements. We now have digital taxation, minimum taxation for corporate tax which is in place,” he continued.
“I wish it was the same because it’s the missing piece of the puzzle,” he added.
“My ambition has always been a global reform of the international tax system: digital, which escapes taxation, minimum corporate tax to avoid tax evasion and taxation of the richest,” he concluded .
On the taxation of digital giants, the Italian Minister of Finance was, however, more pessimistic than his French counterpart: according to Giancarlo Giorgetti it is “unlikely” that a consensus between States will emerge in June at the OECD due to ‘resistance’ from India and China.
To be adopted, this reform, described as “Pillar 1” of the major agreement adopted by nearly 140 states at the OECD at the end of 2021, must first be the subject of a common text, and the deadline for signature by the set of members was set for June by the OECD, time to complete negotiations between States.
“The June deadline is approaching and honestly it seems unlikely to me,” said Mr. Giorgetti on Thursday.
Like Janet Yellen, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner was very skeptical about the Brazilian proposal for a third pillar, global taxation of the richest.
“We must work on the first pillar before adding new ideas, the substance of which would also be questionable,” he told the press in Stresa on Friday.
Concerning the minimum taxation project on billionaires, the Brazilian government was inspired by the work carried out by the French economist Gabriel Zucman on the taxation of the richest.
According to the latter, if the planet’s 3,000 billionaires paid at least the equivalent of 2% of their fortune in income taxes, this global tax could bring in an additional 250 billion dollars.
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