MILANO – Life is becoming more complicated for multinationals accustomed to dodging taxes around the world. In fact, from this year it debuts in many countries Global Minimum Taxthe instrument with which governments aim to introduce a minimum effective rate of 15% for large companies with a turnover exceeding 750 million euros and which in countries’ expectations could lead to an increase in global tax revenue of 220 billion dollars, according to the OECD.
The objective is clear: to ensure that multinationals pay the right level of taxes in the country in which they operate and not just in the one in which they have tax residence. To achieve this objective, 139 countries – under the impetus of the OECD – signed an agreement in July 2021 that committed the states in this direction. Since then, a long adoption process began in the various jurisdictions until 2024, when the measure finally became operational.
Among the states in which the minimum tax debuts in January there are already theEuropean Unionincluding Italy but above all Ireland e Luxembourgil United Kingdomthe Norway, Australia, South Korea and Canada. However, the United States and China are missing, despite having signed the agreement in 2021, they have not yet committed to specific reforms in this sense.
The impact of the reform is poised to be significant. According to Jason Ward, principal analyst at the Center for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research interviewed by the Financial Times, the Global Minimum Tax “will reduce the incentives for companies to use tax havens and the incentives for countries to become tax havens”.
Global minimum tax, what is the minimum tax that aims to flush out tech multinationals by Flavio Bini 19 December 2023
The two pillars
There are two pillars of the 2021 agreement. The first, still in the process of being implemented, is essentially intended mainly for large tech multinationals, because it focuses on companies with a turnover of over 20 billion dollars and a profitability margin higher than 10%. % and aims to correctly redistribute profits and related taxes, regardless of physical presence in the territory.
The global minimum tax, on the other hand, concerns the second pillar and, as mentioned, applies to all companies over 750 million. In Italy the rule has just been adopted, through an ad hoc legislative decree, to implement Directive 2022/2053.
The directive
The European directive introduces two rules aimed precisely at targeting all the cases in which large multinationals manage to avoid their obligations towards national taxes. There Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) essentially provides for a supplementary tax to be paid by companies in Italy if their subsidiaries pay lower taxation in a country with advantageous taxation.
Parent companies will be asked to pay the difference between 15% and any lower tax paid by their companies abroad. The second rule, the Undertaxed Profit Rule (UPR)however, it acts when the first rule cannot be applied because one of the company’s entities – including the “parent” company – operates in a State where the rule is not in force.
The rule therefore provides for example the possibility of tax deducting payments made to entities to which the IIR does not apply, thus rebalancing the effect of non-payment of the tax.