UPDATED: Germany, France stand by 2023 tax reform deadline

BERLIN, Feb 18 (Reuters) – The German government stands by the goal of implementing a global corporate tax reform drafted last year as scheduled on Jan. 1, 2023, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said during a meeting with his G20 counterparts on Friday.

“It is an unquestionably ambitious timetable, but it is also a major and important project for international tax justice,” Lindner said when asked if he still supports the deadline.

Last October, nearly 140 countries reached a deal on a minimum tax rate of 15% on multinational companies to make it harder for companies like Google, Amazon  and Facebook  to park profits in low-tax countries. 

Earlier on Friday, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he was “really asking for a swift implementation” of the agreement as he also backed the 2023 deadline. 

The timetable is widely considered to be ambitious, not least because U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is struggling to pass legislation that would bring U.S. law in line with the global deal.

 A global corporate tax deal reached last year needs to be implemented by early 2023, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told his G20 counterparts on Friday.

Last October nearly 140 countries reached a deal on a minimum tax rate of 15% on multinationals and agreed to make it harder for companies like Google , Amazon  and Facebook to avoid taxation by booking profits in low-tax jurisdictions.

The technical details are now being hammered out at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development so that countries can bring the new rules onto their law books by next year.

However, that deadline is widely considered to be highly ambitious, not least because U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is struggling to pass legislation that would bring U.S. law in line with the global deal.

“The key question is the implementation of our political agreement. There is no turning back, we need to move on,” Le Maire said during a G20 finance ministers meeting.

“I’m really asking for a swift implementation of the OECD agreement on both Pillar I and Pillar II no later than the beginning 2023,” he added.

Le Maire said he invited his G20 counterparts to come in June to Paris to sign a new multilateral legal framework needed to implement the agreement’s first pillar, which makes it harder for digital giants to park profits in low-tax countries.

Photo – French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. EPA-EFE/IAN LANGSDON