OECD

In response to the OECD’s tax deal announced today, Oxfam’s Tax Policy Lead Susana Ruiz said: “Today's tax deal was meant to end tax havens for good. Instead it was written by them." 

On the eve of technical talks to thrash out the final details of the OECD tax deal ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers meeting next week, Oxfam is calling for world leaders to bring fairness and ambition back to the table and deliver a tax plan that won’t leave developing countries with next to nothing. 

Responding to the announcement today that the OECD Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting has agreed to push ahead with the two-pronged global tax reform deal and set a global minimum corporate tax of 15 percent, Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said:  “This is not an ‘historic’ deal ―it is history repeating itself. Those who shamelessly rigged the global tax system to their benefit over a century ago have again ring-fenced the game for themselves."

Figures published today by the OECD show that development aid has slightly increased in 2020. While this rise provides a lifeline for millions of people living in poverty around the world, it’s simply not enough. With extreme poverty skyrocketing for the first time in over twenty years and increasing economic and gender inequality exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis, rich countries are facing and failing the biggest test the aid system has seen since its creation 50 years ago, said Oxfam. 

Rich countries at the OECD ministerial meeting on development cooperation have failed to collectively commit to a massive scale-up in aid budgets to help developing countries face the devastating and widescale impact of COVID-19. 

Poor countries have lost out on $5.7 trillion in aid over the last 50 years - equivalent to $114 billion a year - because rich countries have reneged on their “solemn promise” to deliver 0.7 percent of their national income in international aid, a new Oxfam report revealed today.

Current levels of aid from rich countries are woefully inadequate to help developing countries face the coronavirus crisis, said Oxfam today in response to new OECD aid figures for 2019.

The US and some European countries are seeking to water down historic global tax reforms warned Oxfam today, ahead of a meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and central bank governments in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this weekend. G20 Ministers are expected to give the green light to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) outline proposals for tax reform at the meeting on 22 and 23 February.

Under this new proposal, companies’ profits and their ability to shift them offshore will barely be affected and consequently developing countries will only see a very small increase in their corporate tax revenues. 

Jan Kowalzig, Oxfam’s climate policy advisor, responds to the release of new figures on the climate finance provided to developing countries by rich countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).