Hungary on Friday again placed a European-level agreement. The state blocks a proposal for a minimum dividend tax rate of 15 percent. This is not the first time that Hungarians have been frustrated: the country has previously blocked several proposals to restrict the import of Russian oil.
The introduction of a minimum profit tax has been at the top of the list for the French presidency of the European Union for nearly six months now. That presidency will expire at the end of this month.
The French seemed to end their term by agreeing to reform the profit tax. Poland, the main opponent of this, ceded on Friday after a number of concessions from the European Union. Hungary even torpedoed the proposal.
“Hungary cannot agree to the tax directive. We are not done yet,” Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga told his counterparts. The Hungarians are said to fear, among other things, that the current proposal goes too far than other countries, putting the EU countries at a competitive disadvantage compared to, say, the United States.
Varga’s French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, says these problems have long been resolved and that the agreement is actually beneficial to the EU. Le Maire says he will not give up, although he considers concluding a deal “difficult”.
The envisaged guidance is based on an agreement among nearly 140 countries on a major reform of the international tax system, with the aim of combating tax evasion and tax evasion. It states that multinational companies with an annual turnover of 750 million euros or more are not allowed to pay less than 15 percent of taxes anywhere in the world. Multinational corporations have to start paying in the countries where their customers are located, not just in the country where the head office is located.
