US Tax Carve-Out Beats Retaliation, OECD Business Rep Says

A global minimum tax deal that exempts American companies from key provisions is a better outcome for European business than the alternative of US retaliatory taxes, the co-chair of the OECD’s business committee said.

The package agreed to this month by more than 145 countries at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development headed off a threat of steep US taxes on foreign companies if global concessions weren’t made.

In this episode of Talking Tax, Christian Kaeser, global head of tax at Siemens AG, told Bloomberg Tax reporter Ryan Hogg that some of his European counterparts regarded the deal as “lopsided” but welcomed new permanent safe harbors that were created with input from Business at OECD, known as BIAC. Kaeser is co-chair of BIAC’s tax committee.

“I’m pretty happy with the outcome,” he said.

Competitive disparities created by the deal can be remedied by simplification of the EU’s own rules, including scrapping of the bloc’s controlled foreign companies anti-tax avoidance regime, he said.

As for Pillar One, the other main part of a 2021 OECD-led tax agreement, Kaeser saw little hope. Further talks on the pillar, which would reallocate taxing rights to countries where big companies make their profits, have stalled for years.

It “should be called Pillar Zed, zed for zombie,” he said.

Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.