Finance Minister Christian Lindner hopes that the planned minimum tax for large companies will give more leeway in the budget in order to avoid other burdens. “We don’t want to keep increasing taxes for the economy and people,” said the FDP leader on Twitter on Tuesday. “In order for us to remain financially solid, large international companies must also make their fair contribution.” The reform should prevent tax dumping in the future.
Companies with more than 750 million euros in sales should pay at least 15 percent in taxes from next year. This emerges from a draft law by the Ministry of Finance to introduce the global minimum tax, which is available to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and the German Press Agency. According to the draft, additional tax revenue “in the low single-digit billion range” per year is expected for Germany as a result.
In 2021, the EU and the US, along with around 130 other countries, agreed on an ambitious international tax reform to prevent corporate profits from being shifted to tax havens. The core was the global minimum tax of 15 percent for large companies regardless of their location.
Lindner now wants to implement this in national law. In essence, this means that if a company pays only eight percent tax on its earnings in a country, it must pay back tax on the difference to the new minimum rate at home. About 8,000 companies worldwide are affected, including 600 to 800 German ones, reported the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
