The GSMA and the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) will provide members with a proposed global tax exemption aimed at paying a fair share in the countries in which large multinational corporations (MNCs) operate. I requested.
Last month, the G20 Group and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) approved a global corporate tax of at least 15 percent on multinational corporations with the goal of ending tax havens.
Approval was obtained from 132 countries and territories that participated in the “Two Pillar Plan” to end global competition to provide the lowest corporate tax rates. Many countries do this to attract investment from giants like Amazon.
In June, members of the G7 countries agreed on an outline of a global tax treaty. Their purpose was to prevent multinational corporations from tax evasion by filing profits in low interest rate countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg.
The GSMA and ETNO appreciate the spirit of the OECD / G20 Comprehensive Framework Agreement, but members are exempt because they have already paid “a lot” of taxes, including those not paid by other entities. It says it should.
“The framework double-taxes large multinationals in the telecommunications industry that have already paid a significant percentage of their taxes, with the original purpose of taxing digital services in the jurisdiction in which their customers live. We have moved to a wide range of applications that we can impose. ”Written by two groups.
They said the telecommunications industry is already paying corporate income tax, VAT, spectrum license fees, and unilateral telecommunications service tax (TST) in many markets.
The group said the OECD plan would remove the digital services tax, but there was no proposal to remove the TST, which means that telecommunications would effectively pay double taxation.
The group also provides exemptions for some infrastructure services businesses because the profits are related to the country in which the infrastructure is located, although they may operate in multiple countries. Attention was paid to specific OECD proposals that it recommends to do.
“Development and maintenance of telecommunications infrastructure requires long-term investments and stable investment periods, and the industry has the right to a fair return on investing in infrastructure,” the duo claims. did.
The request comes months after a report by the Fair Tax Foundation, which claims that the largest tech company in the United States has paid about $ 100 billion less tax than stated in its annual report for the past decade.
According to the campaign group, “Silicon Six” (Alphabet, the owner of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix and Google) paid about $ 219 billion in income tax between 2011 and 2020.
The report also claimed that if six companies paid headline rates where they do business, they would pay about $ 149 billion less than expected to the global tax authorities.
Amazon and Facebook have been named as the worst tax avoidance criminals.