French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the European Union must adopt new rules for a global minimum corporate tax of 15% in the coming weeks, despite the skepticism of member states over the timeline, according to Bloomberg.
France has made progress on new international taxation rules a priority for its presidency of the EU in the first half of this year after a deal between some 140 countries in October at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Yet some European states have raised concerns about the feasibility of implementing the global accord in 2023, while others are demanding more progress on another part of the overhaul concerning rights to tax multinational firms.
“Some states still have concerns because their economic models are based on very low level of tax, but they’ve accepted the OECD agreement,” Le Maire said arriving for a meeting to discuss the issues in Brussels. “You can’t accept the OECD agreement and then say it doesn’t stand up when it is transcribed into a European directive in exactly the same terms.”