Allowed to play by a different set of rules
Push on corporate tax rules goes global
By Howard Schneider, WashPost, Published: May 22
A global effort to tighten corporate tax rules is gaining momentum as politicians in Europe and the United States take aim at American tech giants whose savvy use of international tax laws has provoked a public backlash.
A day after a U.S. Senate report slammed Apple’s use of Irish regulations to minimize payments to the U.S. government, European heads of state said they hoped for quick action from an international effort to change rules that let companies shelter profits.
Pushed by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has faced public outrage over the low taxes paid in his country by companies such as Amazon.com and Starbucks, the effort is moving quickly in European nations caught in an era of slow growth and painful austerity. Officials said they are driven not just by a hunt for revenue but also by the political difficulty of justifying to smaller businesses or homeowners why the world’s most sophisticated companies are allowed to play by a seemingly different set of rules.
“We are in an unprecedented economic crisis,” European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said Wednesday after European leaders endorsed plans to move ahead with information sharing and other steps to try to make companies pay more corporate tax. “We have to act because it is fair. . . . The economic crisis makes the difference.”
(More here.)
A global effort to tighten corporate tax rules is gaining momentum as politicians in Europe and the United States take aim at American tech giants whose savvy use of international tax laws has provoked a public backlash.
A day after a U.S. Senate report slammed Apple’s use of Irish regulations to minimize payments to the U.S. government, European heads of state said they hoped for quick action from an international effort to change rules that let companies shelter profits.
Pushed by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has faced public outrage over the low taxes paid in his country by companies such as Amazon.com and Starbucks, the effort is moving quickly in European nations caught in an era of slow growth and painful austerity. Officials said they are driven not just by a hunt for revenue but also by the political difficulty of justifying to smaller businesses or homeowners why the world’s most sophisticated companies are allowed to play by a seemingly different set of rules.
“We are in an unprecedented economic crisis,” European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said Wednesday after European leaders endorsed plans to move ahead with information sharing and other steps to try to make companies pay more corporate tax. “We have to act because it is fair. . . . The economic crisis makes the difference.”
(More here.)
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