Last weekend the world’s biggest economies backed a global minimum corporation tax. G20 finance ministers from countries like China, Brazil, the US, and the UK signed up to the deal.
This builds on the agreement reached the G7 summit in Cornwall in June.
It’s difficult to overstate just how important this is.
Campaigners around the world have pushed to fix the current system for decades. At the moment some of the biggest companies in the world get away with paying ultra-low rates of tax. The deal would start to fix this problem.
However, the deal doesn’t do much for lower-income countries. It’s notable that countries like India and Argentina are critical of the deal. Campaigners are angry that most of the extra money will go to the richest countries.
The agreement came during the same week that our own government voted to reduce the amount of foreign aid we give. The middle of a global health and economic crisis is not the time to be cutting lower-income countries off.
It’s unfair that politicians are cutting aid with one hand while barring lower-income countries from their fair share of tax with the other. It should be in our own interests to help poorer countries fight the pandemic. It’s also the right thing to do.
Finally, the think tank IPPR has produced a great new piece of work. Their Environmental Justice Commission insists that fairness must be at the core of efforts to tackle climate change. This fits with the climate and tax principles we agreed with a number of leading environmental organisations.
Information source: TAXJUSTICE.UK (Robert Palmer, director)
