The issue will be left for the next meeting in July between the finance ministers of the largest economies on the planet, assured the Brazilian Finance Minister, Fernando Haddad.
The meeting of G20 finance ministers taking place in Sao Paulo (Brazil) finds divergences on the host country's proposal to create a minimum global tax for the super-rich within the framework of policies against hunger and inequality, it admitted this Thursday the Minister of Finance of Brazil, Fernando Haddad, the country in charge of the rotating presidency of the bloc.
Haddad acknowledged different "visions" on the project of international taxation of billionaires through a global tax proposed by the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to be incorporated into the G20 agenda, whose resolutions are given by consensus.
In this framework, Haddad announced in his opening speech of the second and final session that the issue will be left for the next meeting in July between the finance ministers of the largest economies on the planet, among which Argentina is represented.
"I want to announce that this Presidency will try to build a G20 Declaration on international taxation until our ministerial meeting in July. We will consult all members and work together to have a balanced but ambitious document that reflects our legitimate aspirations," he emphasized.
The meeting also showed divergences between G7 nations (the most developed countries in the world) against the rest of the G20 members, who refuse not to include in the meeting documents any declaration about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
THE DELEGATIONS OF FRANCE AND GERMANY MADE THIS REQUIREMENT OFFICIAL
"Brazil wants the topic of the meeting to deal with finances and the fight against poverty, the interministerial agenda of Finance. The meeting of foreign ministers addresses the issues of war," a Brazilian source told Télam .
Minister Haddad insisted on including the issue of taxation of the super-rich in the only statement transmitted to the public at the meeting held in the São Paulo Biennial building in Ibirapuera Park in the economic and financial capital of Brazil.
"Despite recent advances, it is an unquestionable fact that the world's billionaires continue to evade our tax systems through a series of strategies," he emphasized.
The minister cited the tax reform approved in 2023 by the Lula government, and explained that the solution to tax evasion by large fortunes must be one of the issues to be addressed jointly and in cooperation between the countries.
"Effective solutions for the super-rich to pay their fair share in taxes depends on international cooperation. This cooperation already exists. In the last ten years we have made very important progress in areas such as information exchange, transparency and minimum tax levels" , he added.
He cited the work of the UN and the OECD in seeking tax engineering towards large multinational corporations, and explained that Brazil is looking for a "third pillar" which is to tax the great fortunes that achieve mechanisms and "holes" in the legislation to evade taxes. .
Haddad gave as an example a report by the European Union Fiscal Observatory on tax evasion, which showed that billionaires pay an effective tax rate equivalent to between 0 and 0.5% of their wealth.
"If we join forces and take into account the most advanced research in the area, we can continue to advance our international tax cooperation and reduce opportunities for a small number of billionaires to continue taking advantage of loopholes in our tax system to avoid paying their fair contribution," he assured.
