G-20 Vows Corporate Tax Crackdown

George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer, UK), Pierre Moscovici (Minister of Finance, France) & Wolfgang Schäuble (Federal Minister of Finance, Germany), We Are Determined That Multinationals Will Not Avoid Tax:

Germany, France and Britain want competitive corporate tax systems that attract global companies to our countries and help our economies to grow. They are a significant source of growth, investment, employment and tax. But we also want global companies to pay their fair share of taxes.

International tax standards have struggled to keep pace with our changing economy. This has allowed some multinational companies to restructure their business to minimise the amount of tax they pay, shifting the taxation of their profits away from the jurisdictions where they are being generated, so that they pay less tax than smaller, less international companies.

We are taking steps to clamp down on tax avoidance in our own countries. But acting alone has its limits. Clamp down in one country and those companies, their lawyers and their accountants move elsewhere. In fact, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has argued that unilateral action could even be counterproductive. That’s why we need to act together.

• BBC News, G20 Vows to Combat Corporate Tax Avoidance
• Bloomberg, U.K., Germany, France Urge G-20 Action on Tax Avoidance
• Fox Business, G-20: UK, France, Germany Urge Overhaul of Corporate Tax Rules 
• Reuters, Britain, France and Germany Back Multinational Tax Clampdown

(Hat Tip: Ann Murphy.)