Economic Relief Plans Around the World During the Coronavirus Outbreak
Countries around the world are implementing emergency tax measures to support their debilitated economies under the coronavirus (COVID-19) threat.
Daniel Bunn is President and CEO of the Tax Foundation. Daniel has been with the organization since 2018 and, prior to becoming President, successfully built its Center for Global Tax Policy, expanding the Tax Foundation’s reach and impact around the world.
Prior to joining the Tax Foundation, Daniel worked in the United States Senate at the Joint Economic Committee as part of Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) Social Capital Project and on the policy staff for both Senator Lee and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC). In his time in the Senate, Daniel developed legislative initiatives on tax, trade, regulatory, and budget policy.
He has a master’s degree in Economic Policy from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from North Greenville University in South Carolina.
Daniel lives in Halethorpe, Maryland, with his wife and their three children.
Countries around the world are implementing emergency tax measures to support their debilitated economies under the coronavirus (COVID-19) threat.
During the coronavirus outbreak, Italy has been hit especially hard. Policymakers have introduced numerous measures to stem the spread of the virus and provide relief to businesses that are facing a severe downturn.
The Great Recession provides some insight into how tax revenues declined during a deep recession. Across OECD countries, revenues fell by 11 percent from 2008 to 2009 with corporate income taxes seeing the steepest decline at 28 percent. Revenues from individual income taxes fell by 16 percent.
As policymakers consider ways to facilitate investment, effective average tax rates provide a valuable perspective on where burdens on those activities are high and where they are low.
For Colombia, as well as for other countries in the world that are not capital exporters, one important question is whether CFC rules are necessary or are indirectly a requirement to be part of world organizations like the OECD (which Colombia is not a member) in order to be on the radar of larger economies.
Germany has had a Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) regime since 1972, when the German Foreign Transactions Tax Act was enacted. Under the German regime, a CFC is a foreign company where its capital or voting rights are either directly or indirectly majority-owned by German residents at the end of its fiscal year.
Though they are limited by both data and assumptions, the OECD will face similar limitations. As policymakers work to fine-tune the proposals under both Pillar 1 and 2 the impact assessment should be a critical part of that discussion.
The CFC legislation in Spain is not as complicated as it is in some other countries, and it is aligned with the standards recommended by the OECD. The Spanish rules have evolved in a way that the rules are designed to comply with the EU principles not to interrupt the functioning of the Union and its single market.
The OECD has been working to assess the impact of their program of work, and it will be critical for this assessment to take into account impacts not only on revenues, but also on growth and investment.
The past week has been nearly nonstop with news on various fronts of a dispute over taxation of digital businesses. The main characters have been the U.S., France, and the UK, although the EU and the OECD have also played roles. Though the dust is still settling, it is worth trying to tie the various events and arguments together.
In France, Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) rules were first enacted in 1980. The French tax regime operates on a strict territorial basis, where only profits generated in the country are subject to tax in France.
The Chinese approach to base erosion and profit shifting is more focused on the application of transfer pricing rules and not on the application of CFC rules. Even with the rules in place, the Chinese tax authorities have not enforced the rules as much as other countries have.
The tax base for the income-inclusion rule will be just as important as determining the rate, and both the base and the rate will likely impact business decisions. Additionally, policymakers need to determine how the choice for blending fits with the overarching goal of the policy. And as the example of GILTI shows, it is essential to assess how current international tax regulations would interact with a global minimum tax.