“Ireland and Estonia sent a clear message yesterday: the time has come to effectively end aggressive tax planning and to make sure that big tech companies pay their fair share of taxes.

We urge Hungary to join the deal too. EU countries should lead the way in the fight against tax dodging”, said Markus Ferber MEP, EPP Group Spokesman on Economic Affairs, after Ireland and Estonia announced that they will join a new global corporate tax deal.

This new framework aims to force multinationals to pay tax where they operate - and not just where they have their headquarters - and impose a minimum corporate rate of 15%. Led by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the deal has already been signed by more than 130 countries, yet some EU Member States are among the holdouts. The OECD aims to finalise the last details of the agreement today.

“Big tech companies must pay their fair share of taxes where they generate their profits. The minimum effective tax rate of 15% is a concrete and ambitious solution. It would allow to fight tax havens, while preserving European companies’ competitiveness. Now, the important thing is to sign the agreement and put forward the changes we need in the international scenario. We expect no less than the European countries’ leadership on this challenging work”, said Lídia Pereira MEP, EPP Group Spokeswoman in the Subcommittee on Tax Matters.

“In a globalised world, this is the kind of issue that can no longer be solved on Member State or European level. Therefore, getting an international agreement was crucial. This is the only way to fill holes in the international tax system and save billions of Euros per year that vanish into aggressive tax planning and tax avoidance”, concluded Ferber. Photo by stevepb, Wikimedia commons.