Countries extend ban on creating digital service tax

One group of 138 countries extended the ban on creating national taxes on digital services for 1 year, until December 31, 2024. The idea is to gain time to ratify the historic agreement of tax reform on multinationals signed in 2021.

The nations that subscribed to the proposal in 2021, including Brazil, committed not to introduce new rates until December 31, 2023. The goal was that, in July of this year, the wording for the implementation of a minimum tax on multinational profits –of at least 15%– would be ready.

Manal Corwin, director of the Center for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), told the Financial Times have “some outstanding issues among a small number of countries that need to be resolved”.

The adoption of a minimum tax on large companies would lead to the redistribution of around US$ 200 billion in annual profits from multinationals to the countries where the transactions are carried out. In order for taxation to be levied, there needs to be a change in global tax legislation. But, according to the British publication, the countries are still in disagreement over the wording of the legal part of the measure.

In a statement (fullin English – 182 KB) released this Wednesday (July 12, 2023), the OECD Secretary General, Mathias Cormann stated that the organization is “worked intensively on the technical details and necessary implementation arrangements”.

According to him, the agreement for the extension of the ban on the creation of national taxes on digital services “proves that, despite challenges and compromises along the way, multilateral dialogue works and can produce results to address shared challenges that require shared solutions”.