Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The US is planning to push Poland to support the proposed global minimum corporate tax, with US Treasure Secretary Janet Yellen visiting the country.
Poland is the only EU member state that still opposes the plan and the country vetoed the EU’s attempt to implement it last month, according to Reuters reporting on Monday.
Magdalena Rzeczkowska, Finance Minister of Poland, called for tying the proposed global minimum tax to the first pillar of the proposed tax reform – reallocation of taxing rights of multinational companies to countries where they generate revenues.
Some countries that support the global tax reform see this reallocation as the more desired change as it would allow them to tax US tech giants including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Meta.
However, countries that took part in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) negotiations in October did not agree on the first pillar, which is still not fully developed.
Poland’s concerns
Rzeczkowska pointed out that failing to reach an agreement on the first pillar while adopting the second one would put additional pressure on European companies.
Her French counterpart Bruno Le Maire criticised the argument.
Yellen is to meet with Polish officials including Rzeczkowska, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Adam Glapiński, head of the National Bank of Poland to discuss the issue.
She is also to visit the World Central Kitchen facility that provides Ukrainian refugees with meals as part of her stay in Poland.
According to a source close to OECD negotiations, Yellen will stress the positive aspects of the proposed global minimum corporate tax as it is expected to generate revenues of some US$ 2 billion annually, which could help Poland to pay for hosting refugees.
The source stressed “these revenues are going to be paid by large multinational corporations, not Polish individuals or small businesses.”
“It’s going to move investments from countries that are traditional tax havens to countries like Poland that can compete on the basis of their workforces and their economic fundamentals,” the source concluded.
Manal Corwin, former US Treasury official, predicted that convincing all EU member states to support the plan would put pressure on the US to adopt the changes.
Washington has not adopted the changes as they are part of a large spending package that is facing resistance over soaring inflation.
