The OECD has proposed a global shake-up of corporate taxation, overturning a century of rules that had allowed digital groups such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google to shift profits around the world to minimise their tax bills.
The proposals, unveiled yesterday after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, are aimed at extracting more corporate tax from big multinationals whether they are digital or own highly profitable brands, such as luxury goods makers or global car companies.
The winners would be large countries including the US, China, UK, Germany, France, Italy and developing economies. These would see an increase in their rights to levy tax on corporate income earned from sales in their territories, while the companies themselves, tax havens and low tax jurisdictions such as Ireland would lose.