President Donald Trump surprised many in the tax community by making the global tax deal a day one issue. His Jan. 20 memorandum gave his Treasury secretary 60 days to recommend interactions with tax treaties and possible protective measures to ensure the minimum tax rules have no force or effect in the US.
An update to the EU’s Excise Tax Directive that embraces harm reduction principles would save lives and provide a steady stream of revenue to support public health expenditures.
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Tax legislation in 2025 may have good reason to address international corporate income taxes, because of scheduled changes slated to go into effect or because of international developments like the Pillar Two agreement.
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The agreement represents a major change for tax competition, and many countries will be rethinking their tax policies for multinationals. If there is no agreement on changes to Pillar Two or digital services taxes, retaliatory American tariffs could be on the horizon.
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This week, the incoming Trump administration issued a day-one executive order on the global minimum tax agreement known as Pillar Two, which seeks to ensure multinational corporations pay at least 15 percent in income tax.
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Bob Stack, an international tax expert, explores the implications of the EU’s adoption of Pillar Two and the potential for streamlining overlapping policies. He also addresses the issues that the US faces in global tax policy with the upcoming elections.
Pillar Two risks creating a more complex and unfair international tax system. It is inadvertently fostering new, opaque, and complex forms of competition, and policymakers should consider alternative approaches to creating a fairer international tax environment.
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How does living abroad impact the taxes an American has to pay? Unlike most countries that tax based on residency, the US employs citizenship-based taxation, meaning Americans are taxed on their global income regardless of where they reside.
The global tax deal and Pillar Two are shaking up the tax landscape worldwide, introducing a web of complexity and confusion.
The National Foreign Trade Council’s survey shows that the private sector recognizes the economic value of treaties as an instrument to increase tax certainty and decrease distortions.
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Adopting tax policy based on sound principles like neutrality rather than political expediency is essential for the European Union’s fiscal future.
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Pillar Two, the international global minimum tax agreement, has a considerable chance of failing and may ultimately allow the same problems it was designed to address.
6 min read
The rules of tax competition are changing with the recent agreement on a global minimum tax and other changes to tax rules around the world, but that does not mean the contest is over.
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If the EU is going to harmonize its tax base, it should do so in a way that increases the efficiency and competitiveness of tax policy for the EU as a whole, and not just seek out the lowest common denominator.
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The OECD recently released a trove of new documents on a draft multilateral tax treaty. The U.S. Treasury has opened a 60-day consultation period for the proposal and is requesting public review and input.
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Pillar Two implementation is underway in many jurisdictions, and many governments are aiming to get their proposals approved before the end of 2023. However, estimating Pillar Two’s impact on government revenue is proving difficult. As a result, only a few countries have publicly presented their findings.
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In recent years, several countries have taken measures to reduce carbon emissions, including instituting environmental regulations, emissions trading systems, and carbon taxes. In 1990, Finland was the world’s first country to introduce a carbon tax.
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The United Nations (UN) is preparing to flex its muscles on international tax policy. Several developing countries say the OECD’s approach favors richer countries at their expense, and the UN hopes to fix this.
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Canada is planning to join the club of countries that, in the past 3 years, introduced a digital services tax (DST) despite U.S. opposition and concerns expressed by Canadian businesses.
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Short FormThe technical rules that were once solely the province of tax wonks in D.C. and Paris are being brought out into the public sphere.
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