UN tax convention despite EU and US opposition – EURACTIV.de

UN Convention to Establish Global Rules on Taxes and Illicit Financial Flows The international community will advance the plans for the conference. The EU, USA and the United Kingdom have already spoken out against the plan.

Following a debate and vote in New York on Wednesday (November 22), the resolution “to promote comprehensive and effective international tax cooperation” and the UN. Both the Tax Convention, introduced by Nigeria on behalf of the African Group at the UN, were ratified by 125. Votes for 48

A majority of the 48 27 EU member states voted against establishing the UN Tax Convention. The United States, the United Kingdom and Japan were also opposed to the convention.

At a meeting earlier this month, EU finance ministers recommended that EU countries support an unfettered multilateral agenda at the UN.

UN They also concluded that the tax system “runs the risk of duplicating existing or completed international initiatives on global taxation”. […] This is time-consuming for the legal systems of all countries.

Earlier, a UK amendment to make the process legally non-binding, supported by all EU countries and the US, was rejected by 55 to 107 votes. Rich nations were accused of blocking the process during intense talks last month.

The conference will now be organized in the coming months and is expected to present its first proposals from 2025.

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The question of who sets the global tax rules has been hotly debated in recent years.

African countries argue that they are the biggest losers from illicit financial flows and tax evasion. Therefore, global tax policy should be set at the UN level, not the 39-member Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz was among the group of international economists who supported this call.

While the Paris-based OECD has been working for years on how multinational corporations pay taxes, its 39 members do not include any African or developing countries. That’s why critics refer to it as the “rich club”.

Critics of the UN convention argue that the United Nations currently lacks the resources or expertise to set tax rules. The new process also risks undermining the OECD’s progress.

EU countries lose more than $130 billion annually to tax havens. The European Union maintains “black” and “grey” lists of countries that do not apply international rules on the transfer of banking information, money laundering and taxes.

However, civil society organizations have pointed out that many EU countries are tax havens. In its annual country recommendations as part of the European Semester, this year the European Commission called on Luxembourg and Malta to take action against aggressive tax planning.

[Bearbeitet von Nathalie Weatherald/Kjeld Neubert]