In October 2021 the international community struck a ground-breaking global tax deal. The landmark reform, agreed by 136 countries and jurisdictions, will ensure that all Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) will be subject to a minimum 15% tax rate from 2023. It means – at least in theory – that multinational corporations will no longer be able to pay 0% corporate tax on their vast profits.
“The agreement will make our international tax arrangements fairer and work better,” said OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, one of the major architects of the deal. “It is a major victory for effective and balanced multilateralism. This is a far-reaching agreement which ensures our international tax system is fit for purpose in a digitalized and globalized world economy.”
But will these encouraging words ever translate into real action? Maybe. And it’s easy to understand the skeptical position. After all, the mega-corporations seem to have an uncanny knack for finding loopholes in the law when billions of dollars are on the table – and yes, we’re talking about you, Google and Amazon.
So we’ll have to wait and see if our global leaders will ever summon up the courage to make sure the super-wealthy companies pay their fair share. In the meantime, small business financer OnDeck decided to see how this minimum 15% corporate tax rate compares to what businesses are currently paying across the world.
And it put the findings together in a series of maps showing the average corporate tax rates in every country.
