Corporate Executives Try to Assess Potential Impact of Tax Change Proposals

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Wall Street Journal

Corporate tax chiefs are trying to assess the potential implications of a proposal for a new global tax system for consumer-facing businesses, an effort that is being complicated by what some companies describe as a lack of critical details.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is running the initiative, was scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday in Paris to discuss a proposal that would set a standard tax rate for a company’s global operations and allow individual governments to tax profits above that based on sales accounted for by each country.

The new rules would represent a departure from current regulations that look at where companies are based and where they hold patents and brands.

Dubbed the “unified approach,” the rules would apply to companies with annual revenues of more than €750 million ($830 million) in consumer-facing industries, a broad term that includes technology companies—which have been in the spotlight for their tax practices—and other firms selling services and goods to consumers.

Companies—some of which are still working through the OECD’s 2016 framework on base erosion and profit shifting, which abolished various tax loopholes, or the 2017 U.S. corporate tax overhaul—could be required to again make sweeping changes to their global tax structure within a short period.

The OECD aims to have agreement among its 36 member states on the unified approach by 2020.

That has caused high-profile companies and business associations to voice their concerns publicly ahead of this week’s meeting.

“Before deciding on the final proposal, we encourage the OECD to clarify a number of issues,” music-streaming company Spotify AB said in published remarks to the organization.

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Like, how an "international tax" is legal in the US?

[Valin]

1 hour ago, WestVirginiaRebel said:

 

Like, how an "international tax" is legal in the US?

 

Very Well Put!