US not ready to sign pending global tax agreement: Jenet Yellen

STRESA(ITALY): US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US won’t sign an agreement to finalise a still-pending global tax deal until India and China agree to key unresolved issues. “India, in particular, has been a holdout and China has not really engaged very much in these negotiations at all,” Yellen told reporters on Saturday. “We certainly need India and China to come on board in order to get this done.” About 140 countries signed on to the outline of a groundbreaking pact in 2021 to reform the way large multinational companies are taxed. Part of the agreement creates a 15% minimum corporate tax to eliminate low-tax havens.

A second portion, which remains unfinished, would take some of the taxes on profits that big companies pay in their headquarter countries and share that with countries where the companies generate revenue. But negotiators, led by the OECD, have struggled to polish off the details and get enough countries to sign a multilateral convention on implementing the deal.