By Leigh Thomas
PARIS (Reuters) – A global deal to ensure big companies pay a minimum tax rate of 15% and make it harder for them to avoid taxation has been agreed by 136 nations, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Friday.
The OECD said four countries – Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – had not joined the agreement.
“Today’s agreement will make our international tax arrangements fairer and work better,” OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said in a statement. “This is a major victory for effective and balanced multilateralism.”
The OECD said that the minimum rate would see countries collect around $150 billion in new revenues annually while taxing rights on more than $125 billion of profit would be shifted to countries where big multinationals earn their income.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas, Editing by Christian Lowe)