What you need to know
- The OECD agreed on a global digital tax deal in 2021.
- It could see companies like Apple and Google pay more corporate tax.
- A 2023 deadline may no longer be realistic, the OECD's Secretary-General has admitted this week.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's global digital tax deal may not actually be ready until 2024, the group's chief has admitted.
As reported by Reuters, OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann told a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week that progress on the deal was moving less quickly than planned.
As the report notes, the plans could see companies like Apple and Google pay a much larger 15% rate of corporation tax and more tax in countries where they operate and sell products and services.
Cormann stated:
"We deliberately set a very ambitious timeline for implementation initially to keep the pressure on ... but I suspect that it's probably most likely that we'll end up with a practical implementation from 2024 onwards"
Both the EU and the United States have not yet managed to pass legislation backing the bill, which has the support of 140 countries worldwide. Cormann said it was in the United States' best interest to join, and that he was "quietly optimistic" that the EU would back the move. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire also said he was confident the EU would back the measures next month, Poland having vetoed the bloc's most recent efforts at a compromise.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in 2020 that the global tax system needs to be overhauled.
