Ghana’s Minister of Finance recently declined to provide assurance that revenue from a new tax on digital financial services would not be collateralised. At a recent press conference, the Minister stated that he would examine the situation at hand and take a decision with cabinet on how to use resources. Ghana’s Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy),…
G20 leaders are celebrating a new agreement to strengthen the taxation of tech firms and create a global minimum tax, reached by 136 jurisdictions and brokered at the OECD. Numerous lower-income countries have expressed frustration that their influence was marginal and their demands rejected, but many have nonetheless signed up. Historical legacies These negotiations reflect…
The global fight over how—and where—to tax the new digital economy is raging on. Just last week, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published the conclusions from its investigation into France’s new tax on large tech companies, such as Apple, Facebook, and Google. The USTR found that the French tax discriminates against US companies, and…
Yesterday the OECD secretariat published its proposed ‘unified approach’ to update corporate tax rules for the digital era, or at least for one of the project’s two pillars. The proposal is designed to be “the basis for a negotiation that could result in a political agreement by mid-2020.” This agreement is to be made via…
Africa has an important role to play in current plans to reform international tax rules in response to the challenges of the digital economy. Of 132 members of the OECD/G20 ‘Inclusive Framework on BEPS’ (IF), which is leading this work, 24 are African; its steering group has a Nigerian deputy chair, and members from Cote…
Trump’s new investigation is only the latest skirmish in this new divide. Last week, President Trump ordered an investigation into France’s new tax on Apple, Facebook, Google and other large digital companies. The administration is considering strong retaliatory measures, on the grounds that it unfairly targets U.S. companies. This is the latest stage in a long-running…
Just over a week ago, the Kenyan High court declared the double tax avoidance (DTA) agreement between Kenya and Mauritius unconstitutional. Here are some thoughts from two of our experts on the topic: Reflections from Catherine Ngina Mutava The ruling on the legality of the Kenya-Mauritius DTA presents an interesting situation. First, the declaration that…
States are currently struggling to reach global agreement on the taxation of digital firms such as Apple and Google, suggesting that an international regime characterised by impressive coherence over a century may be beginning to fragment. While work on the politics of the international tax regime is still largely preoccupied with the US, a ‘great power’, this fragmentation largely…
