A time for developing nations to speak up

by José Antonio Ocampo – October 17, 2019

This is an international tax emergency

In the face of global outrage at the low or no taxes paid by some of the world’s largest multinational companies, the G20 appointed the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) a few years ago to design alternatives to end these abuses. In response, last week, the OECD put forward proposals for a new international tax system that could be imposed on the world in the coming decades.

We are talking about a serious issue. In the US, for example, 60 of the 500 largest companies, including Amazon, Netflix and General Motors, paid no taxes whatsoever in 2018, despite a cumulative profit of $79 billion, because the current system allows them to do so, and in a completely legal way.

These misappropriations, often legal, are based on complex arrangements but are based on a very simple principle. The multinational only has to play with the allocation of declared profits between its various subsidiaries.

Originally published in Dhaka Tribune. Read full article here (subscription may be required).