[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Janet Yellen, U.S. Treasury Secretary, expressed her expectation for a political agreement on the global minimum corporate tax rate at the upcoming G20 summit in October.
According to major foreign media on the 28th (local time), Secretary Yellen stated this position during her speech at the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), saying that if an agreement is reached, all countries will be able to implement it promptly.
Earlier, at the G7 Finance Ministers' meeting held in the UK last June, an agreement was reached to set the global minimum corporate tax rate at at least 15% to prevent tax avoidance by multinational corporations. Subsequently, in July, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced a statement that 130 countries, accounting for more than 90% of the world's GDP, agreed to set the global minimum corporate tax rate at 15%. However, the OECD noted that 139 countries participated in the discussions, and nine countries, including Ireland, which has the lowest corporate tax rate in Western Europe at 12.5%, did not agree to the 15% rate.
Secretary Yellen expressed her belief that some European countries opposing the global tax reform plan, such as Ireland, Estonia, and Hungary, will "eventually join us." She also mentioned that the possibility of the global minimum corporate tax rate being higher than 15% cannot be ruled out.
The G20 summit is scheduled to be held in Rome, Italy, on October 30-31. The global tax reform plan also includes a measure allowing countries where sales occur to collect some taxes if multinational corporations with a certain sales scale earn excess profits exceeding a normal profit margin (10%).
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