FRANKFURT, GERMANY -- How can governments keep multinational companies from avoiding taxes by shifting their profits to low-tax countries?
That, at least, is the goal set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, which is overseeing talks among more than 140 countries. Doing so would put a floor under corporate taxation worldwide. It would remove the incentive for companies to shift profits to low-tax countries, so the thinking goes, because if those companies escaped tax abroad, they would have to pay it at home anyway. An agreed global minimum would also weaken the motivation for countries to enact low tax rates to attract companies in the first place.
In 2000-2018, U.S. companies booked half of all foreign profits in just seven low-tax jurisdictions: Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland. Though small countries levy a low rate, they may capture what is for them significant revenue. The practice costs the U.S. Treasury around $100 billion in lost revenue annually.Several ways.
Excerpt: 'In 2000-2018, U.S. companies booked half of all foreign profits in just seven low-tax jurisdictions...The practice costs the U.S. Treasury around $100 billion in lost revenue annually.'