**Finance minister Bruno Le Maire pushes for EU workaround to approve minimum tax rate for big companies**
France wants the EU to consider bypassing Hungary in its push to secure a minimum corporate tax rate for big companies after Budapest blocked the agreement, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday.
Le Maire told reporters in Paris that France would work on “alternative solutions” with Paolo Gentiloni, EU economics commissioner, to approve the deal negotiated last year by 137 countries at the OECD so that other EU members could implement the minimum tax without Hungary.
His words underscore frustration in Paris at the failure to deliver legislation implementing the OECD’s so-called Pillar Two, which dictates a minimum effective 15 per cent corporate tax rate. Ministers were on the cusp of a deal this month after Poland dropped its opposition, but Hungary suddenly reversed its position and blocked the measure at the last minute.
“Europe can no longer be held hostage by the ill will of some of its members,” Le Maire said, adding that France had fought for the international tax deal for the past five years and would not let it drop. “This global minimum tax will be implemented in the coming months with or without the agreement of Hungary.”
Tax measures at EU level are subject to unanimous decision-making but nine or more member states can move ahead with initiatives via “enhanced co-operation” if all capitals cannot be brought on board. The bloc has attempted in the past to use enhanced co-operation to implement a financial transactions tax, but the effort foundered.
The idea of deploying enhanced co-operation to implement the corporate tax rate is viewed in Brussels as a last resort and the focus remains on bringing Hungary around. “That’s exactly what we’re focused on right now: reaching a unanimous agreement,” said commission spokesman Daniel Ferrie.
Some officials still expect Hungary to come around to the minimum rate because countries that implement the measure can impose top-up charges on companies that are benefiting from a lower rate.
Le Maire on Thursday said the EU should embrace majority voting for tax matters in the future.
For those wondering and apart from orban being a worthless piece of shit, this is again just for show.
In Hungary the corporate tax is 9%, lowest in the EU, but there is a regional/municipality type tax that varies from region to region but is usually around 2% of your revenue.This means if you have revenue of 10M EUR and expenses of 8M EUR, you will pay 2M x 9% in corporate tax: 180K EUR, but will also have to pay 10M x 2% for the other one: 200K EUR, which is larger by itself than the other one.
Naturally, companies (especially smaller ones) play as much as they can with expenses, trying to break even to avoid paying corptax, but there’s no playing with revenues as all cashier machines are electronically linked to the tax authorities and of course there’s mandatory e-invoicing for online sales.
And of course we have the highest VAT in the EU (and also doing pretty well globally) with 27%, plus shitloads of taxes on employment, so like everything else the fat fuck is doing this just so he can continue to brainwash his idiot voters by being able to say we have the lowest corporate tax rate, when in reality it doesn’t mean shit.
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**Finance minister Bruno Le Maire pushes for EU workaround to approve minimum tax rate for big companies**
France wants the EU to consider bypassing Hungary in its push to secure a minimum corporate tax rate for big companies after Budapest blocked the agreement, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday.
Le Maire told reporters in Paris that France would work on “alternative solutions” with Paolo Gentiloni, EU economics commissioner, to approve the deal negotiated last year by 137 countries at the OECD so that other EU members could implement the minimum tax without Hungary.
His words underscore frustration in Paris at the failure to deliver legislation implementing the OECD’s so-called Pillar Two, which dictates a minimum effective 15 per cent corporate tax rate. Ministers were on the cusp of a deal this month after Poland dropped its opposition, but Hungary suddenly reversed its position and blocked the measure at the last minute.
“Europe can no longer be held hostage by the ill will of some of its members,” Le Maire said, adding that France had fought for the international tax deal for the past five years and would not let it drop. “This global minimum tax will be implemented in the coming months with or without the agreement of Hungary.”
Tax measures at EU level are subject to unanimous decision-making but nine or more member states can move ahead with initiatives via “enhanced co-operation” if all capitals cannot be brought on board. The bloc has attempted in the past to use enhanced co-operation to implement a financial transactions tax, but the effort foundered.
The idea of deploying enhanced co-operation to implement the corporate tax rate is viewed in Brussels as a last resort and the focus remains on bringing Hungary around. “That’s exactly what we’re focused on right now: reaching a unanimous agreement,” said commission spokesman Daniel Ferrie.
Some officials still expect Hungary to come around to the minimum rate because countries that implement the measure can impose top-up charges on companies that are benefiting from a lower rate.
Le Maire on Thursday said the EU should embrace majority voting for tax matters in the future.
For those wondering and apart from orban being a worthless piece of shit, this is again just for show.
In Hungary the corporate tax is 9%, lowest in the EU, but there is a regional/municipality type tax that varies from region to region but is usually around 2% of your revenue.This means if you have revenue of 10M EUR and expenses of 8M EUR, you will pay 2M x 9% in corporate tax: 180K EUR, but will also have to pay 10M x 2% for the other one: 200K EUR, which is larger by itself than the other one.
Naturally, companies (especially smaller ones) play as much as they can with expenses, trying to break even to avoid paying corptax, but there’s no playing with revenues as all cashier machines are electronically linked to the tax authorities and of course there’s mandatory e-invoicing for online sales.
And of course we have the highest VAT in the EU (and also doing pretty well globally) with 27%, plus shitloads of taxes on employment, so like everything else the fat fuck is doing this just so he can continue to brainwash his idiot voters by being able to say we have the lowest corporate tax rate, when in reality it doesn’t mean shit.