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The
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) is
developing rules to make digital companies pay tax where they do
business, rather than where they register subsidiaries - a move
that was broadly endorsed by finance leaders of the Group of 20
(G20) major economies on Sunday.
Yet the OECD efforts were stalled late last year by last-minute
changes demanded by Washington, including a proposed "safe
harbor" regime which critics say would let multinationals choose
whether to abide by the new set of rules or stick to existing
regulations.
"I told my counterparts that Japan is very concerned about the
'safe harbor' proposal," Aso told reporters after attending the
G20 gathering.
"It would extremely diminish the regulatory effect of what we're
trying to do. That is a view expressed by various countries," he
said, joining a chorus of criticism by France and other nations
over the U.S. proposal.
Many G20 officials view the United States as reluctant to deal
with a potentially tricky political matter before the
presidential election later this year.
It is rare for Japan to openly criticize the United States on
economic policy, given the two countries' close defense ties.
The taxing of global digital firms such as Amazon, Google and
Apple - and the effect of the coronavirus outbreak on the global
economy - have figured prominently at the weekend gathering of
G20 finance leaders in Riyadh.
In a communique issued after the meeting, finance leaders said
they encouraged further progress in narrowing remaining
differences towards reaching a consensus on the tax issue by end
of 2020. The OECD says the measure could boost national tax
revenues by a total of $100 billion a year.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by David Holmes)
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