The global minimum tax agreement known as Pillar Two is intended to curb profit shifting. However, OECD countries already have a variety of mechanisms in place that seek to prevent base erosion and profit shifting by multinational corporations.
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Income taxes impose steeper economic costs, and often steeper administrative and compliance costs, than consumption taxes. Moving to a consumption tax would end the tax bias against saving and investment and provide an opportunity to greatly simplify anti-poverty programs embedded in the tax code.
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Pillar Two implementation is underway in many jurisdictions, and many governments are aiming to get their proposals approved before the end of 2023. However, estimating Pillar Two’s impact on government revenue is proving difficult. As a result, only a few countries have publicly presented their findings.
7 min read
In recent years, European countries have undertaken a series of tax reforms designed to maintain tax revenue levels while protecting households and businesses from high inflation.
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As Congress continues its work on the fiscal year 2024 appropriations process and associated tax provisions, it should consider an often-overlooked tax provision: the limitation on deductions companies take for interest payments.
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Congress should recognize that Pillar Two has significant U.S.-specific downsides, but also that it cannot unilaterally stop Pillar Two from taking effect. Instead, it should carefully consider a policy response for the next Congress, when a variety of forces are likely to compel it to act.
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A growing international tax agreement known as Pillar Two presents two new threats to the U.S. tax base: potential lost revenue and limitations on Congress’s ability to set its own tax policy.
39 min read
Bermuda, long celebrated for its pristine beaches and offshore financial services, is embarking on a journey to recalibrate its tax mix. Spurred by the OECD’s Pillar Two initiative, the island will introduce its first-ever corporate income tax in 2025.
4 min read
The United Nations (UN) is preparing to flex its muscles on international tax policy. Several developing countries say the OECD’s approach favors richer countries at their expense, and the UN hopes to fix this.
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Canada is planning to join the club of countries that, in the past 3 years, introduced a digital services tax (DST) despite U.S. opposition and concerns expressed by Canadian businesses.
4 min read
For policymakers in Germany, corporate taxation stands out as a promising area for reform. See Germany tax reform and Germany tax proposals.
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Short FormThe technical rules that were once solely the province of tax wonks in D.C. and Paris are being brought out into the public sphere.
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Capital allowances play an important role in a country’s corporate tax base and can impact investment decisions—with far-reaching economic consequences.
4 min read
Simplifying international tax rules will not solve all the challenges that stand in the way of healthy cross-border investment, but eliminating unnecessary provisions would be a positive pivot relative to the trajectory of recent years. It’s high time that policymakers stopped pursuing ever more complex rules and started the hard work of simplification.
6 min read
Enhancing the European Union’s competitiveness is necessary, but the European Commission’s latest attempt is the wrong approach.
4 min read
The European Commission proposed a new source of revenue as part of its second basket of own resources: a “temporary statistical own resource based on company profits.” This is an attempt to bolster the EU’s budget as it repays its debt.
5 min read
Given that wealth taxes collect little revenue and have the potential to disincentivize entrepreneurship and investment, perhaps European countries should repeal them rather than implement one across the continent.
4 min read
Lawmakers should focus on simplifying the federal tax code, creating stability, and broadly improving economic incentives. There are incremental steps that can be made on the path to fundamental tax reform.
26 min read
The JCT analysis raises some useful questions for the U.S. domestic debate over Pillar Two. The Treasury Department should examine its support for an agreement that will reduce its own revenue intake. But it is also worth noting that the principal mechanism for the revenue reduction—the foreign tax credit—is a policy already baked into U.S. law, including the Republican-enacted global minimum tax from 2017. The OECD deal merely takes advantage of this longstanding feature.
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The National Foreign Trade Council’s survey shows that the private sector recognizes the economic value of treaties as an instrument to increase tax certainty and decrease distortions.
4 min read