Ministry of Finance to reform the taxation of the digital economy

The Czech Republic has long preferred the reform of international taxation, especially the digital economy at the OECD level, and supports activities aimed at combating tax evasion and harmful tax practices. To address the issue of international taxation of the digital economy, it is crucial that the current system increases the tax share for those countries in which digital companies generate profits. There is a general consensus among states that the current setting of taxation of profits of multinational companies, especially digital companies, does not correspond to the extent to which they benefit from the quality of built infrastructure or the functioning legal system of individual countries. Strict adherence to the principle of such taxation would also contribute to solving the problem of tax havens, in which it will not be possible to allocate the resulting revenues to such an extent as before.

However, the proposal to introduce a global minimum corporate tax rate under the second pillar of the OCED reform does not address this issue. Despite setting a minimum tax rate, tax havens could take measures to make the tax rate in their territory much lower in real terms (eg due to tax deductions). In addition, the minimum tax carries the risk of reducing the sovereignty of countries in the area of ​​income taxation and tax competition. For example, in the Czech Republic, tax harmonization with the current setting by the USA would mean an increase in the corporate income tax rate to 21% for our companies.

As part of the reform of international corporate taxation, we therefore identify in particular with the first pillar of the OECD proposal, which seeks to address the issue of taxation of the digital economy. However, the current proposal of taxation parameters by the USA is only a working material and we assume that further negotiations and discussions will take place on this topic in the near future.

Source: mfcr.cz

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