G20 leaders agree on minimum global corporate tax rate
(Update: reledes, updates headline)
Rome, Oct 30 (EFE).- World leaders agreed Saturday to establish a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15% on the first day of a two-day G20 summit in Rome.
The heads of state or government of the world’s 19 most advanced economies as well as the European Union agreed on the tax to prevent multinational companies from taking advantage of complacent tax regimes and not paying taxes where they operate.
One of the deal’s most vocal backers was the President of the United States, Joe Biden, who welcomed the agreement and assured that the international community would thus “help people by making companies contribute by paying their share” of taxes.
The leaders were meeting face-to-face for the first time in nearly two years due to the pandemic.
The summit, hosted by current G20 president Italy, is being held in the run up to a climate conference next week, with scientists warning of major future environmental disasters unless urgent action is taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The G20 is responsible for an estimated 80% of global emissions.
Presidents Vladimir Putin, of Russia, and Xi Jinping, of China, are not attending the summit in person, taking part remotely instead.
The meeting will also address the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. In the buildup to the summit, the G20 ministers of economy and health on Friday agreed to set a target of vaccinating 70 percent of the world’s population by mid-2022. EFE
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