Until mid-January, the 15% global minimum tax on multinational profits was a reality. Spearheaded by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the policy has been in effect since January 2024 in the EU, the UK, Japan, and Canada, with plans for even broader implementation. It was expected to deal a major blow to tax avoidance by tech, industrial, and service giants operating in tax havens, as well as to tax competition between countries, while ensuring a fairer distribution of tax revenues. The OECD estimated that this fiscal overhaul could generate up to $200 billion (192 billion euros) in additional revenue per year.

But in a short "memorandum," signed on the very day of his inauguration, January 20, US President Donald Trump wrecked it all: years of diplomatic-financial negotiations on a tightrope to keep major powers and developing countries around the table, tens of thousands of working hours to reconcile conflicting interests and, finally, a compromise tax agreement calibrated to the millimeter, initialed, at the end of 2021, by 140 states. This included the US, which, as the world's largest economy and home to a large number of multinationals, is vital to the global implementation of the reform.

You have 80.36% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.