US-backed global minimum tax will not stop transnational shenanigans
Their profits are not made in New York offices but through exploitation of the poor in developing countries
As details of US President Joe Biden’s New Deal continue to unfold, it would seem that the winds of change blowing in the West might bring some welcome changes elsewhere too. According to the recently announced Made in America Tax Plan, the US will soon be putting its weight behind a proposal for a global minimum corporate tax rate with the aim of tackling transnational corporate tax dodging.
This proposal comes on the back of growing international recognition that the power of transnational corporations has swelled to surpass the capacity of many states to rein them in. Today they enjoy a system of highly favourable international laws that has become known as the “architecture of impunity”, allowing them to remain essentially stateless and untouchable, even when their economic footprint exceeds that of entire countries. This includes the freedom to operate out of tax havens — low or zero-tax jurisdictions where wealth and profits are often “offshored” to avoid tax in other c...
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