ContextOpening remarks at the 18th plenary of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework in Paris; the OECD promotes better policies for well-being, and its main challenge is keeping international tax rules coherent.
Why it mattersIt opens a plenary of 148 members that must decide how to follow up the global minimum tax and address tax rules for the digital economy.
- Public debt relative to output is higher than before the global financial crisis in nearly every G20 country.
- Developing countries still have limited access to country-by-country tax reports.
- Tax rules for the digital economy risk fragmentation and uncertainty for governments and firms.
- Keep implementing the global minimum tax, which is estimated to cut profit shifting and lift revenues.
- Simplify peer reviews and widen developing countries' access to tax information.
- Reopen the digital economy discussion from evidence before setting priorities and next steps.
Read the speech summary
1. A decade of results
Opening the group's 18th plenary, Mathias Cormann notes that membership has grown from 82 to 148 since the first meeting in Kyoto, with Guatemala the newest. Members swapped gaps in tax rules for shared standards, added transparency and introduced a worldwide minimum tax on large multinationals. Profit per worker in investment hubs fell 27%, and the link between profit location and tax rates weakened by up to 40%. Roughly 65 jurisdictions apply the minimum tax, and a July study sees profit shifting dropping by a quarter to almost half while revenues rise 3 to 5% yearly.
2. Why work continues
Public debt exceeds pre-2008 levels in nearly every G20 economy and growth is slowing to 2.9%, so efficient, trusted tax systems matter more. Three priorities follow: make sure all members, especially developing ones, benefit through simpler reviews, wider access to country reports and training for about 150 000 officials; keep rules suited to change, with new work on mobile workers and on tax, inequality and growth, plus AI in administration and ageing societies.
3. Digital economy talks
The third priority is a constructive route on the tax questions raised by digitalisation. Members will restart the debate from evidence on how the sector evolved. Agreement will be hard, but the aim is to avoid fragmentation, protect tax bases and give firms and governments predictability, using the diversity of members as a strength.