A Practical Proposal to End Corporate Tax Abuse: METR, a Minimum Effective Tax Rate for Multinationals

Alex Cobham, Tommaso Faccio, Javier Garcia-Bernardo, Petr Janský, Jeffery Kadet and Sol Picciotto
Additional contact information
Tommaso Faccio: Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation, Nottingham University Business School
Javier Garcia-Bernardo: Tax Justice Network, CORPTAX, Charles University in Prague
Jeffery Kadet: Lancaster University UK, International Centre for Tax and Development
Sol Picciotto: University of Washington School of Law in Seattle

No 2021/08, Working Papers IES from Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies

Abstract: An initiative is needed to break the logjam in the international negotiations to reform taxation of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The explosion of profit shifting observed since the 1990s has resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars of tax revenues being lost around the world each year - but reform efforts have thus far failed to deliver measurable progress on the primary agreed goal of better aligning MNEs´ taxable profits with the location of their real economic activity. More recently, countries have committed also to ensure that MNEs´ global profits are subject to a minimum effective tax rate, but progress towards international agreement remains stalled. Our proposal for a minimum effective tax rate (METR) could be applied to MNEs by any countries that choose to do so, whether they are home to MNEs, host of MNEs, or both. The METR would be compatible with existing tax treaties, but being non-discriminatory it also complies with other international obligations and could be introduced unilaterally. Economic modelling shows the METR would deliver major revenue gains for participating countries, and adoption would also contribute to, rather than impede, momentum for a more comprehensive multilateral agreement.

Keywords: multinational enterprise; corporate taxation; tax reform; effective tax rate; minimum tax; minimum effective tax rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 H25 H32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2021-04, Revised 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc, nep-int and nep-pbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Journal Article: A Practical Proposal to end Corporate Tax Abuse: METR, a Minimum Effective Tax Rate for Multinationals (2022)
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