“Historical Agreement” The European leaders agreed in principle, from the economic G7 in London, that all multinational corporations should apply a global rate of at least 15% and tax countries with a 20% equity tax exceeding 10%. Produced by.

Immediately, in all media Mainstream, They wasted me Basis The fundamental role played by our Prime Minister Mario Draghi, thanks to whose authority.

Has financial justice been implemented?

His name is Seruti Gino,

But they called him Drago

Friends at the Giambellino Bar

They said he was a magician[1]

It really is, as Draghi says “A step towards greater equality and social justice for citizens” Or are we urinating too much for that?

What are we talking about when multinational companies say

According to the 2020 report “Top 200. Growth in Multinational Power”[2], Developed by the New Development Model Center, multinational companies employ 320,000 and 130 million people, equivalent to 4% of the world’s population. They have a turnover of $ 132 trillion and a net profit of $ 7,200 billion. The top 200 multinationals account for 14% of this turnover.

Many multinationals have higher turnover than the gross domestic product of the states: by comparison, 42 multinationals appear in the top 100 (first ranked 25th). But compared to the revenue of the states, the multinationals in the top 100 become 69 (first in 13th place).

According to the report, about 41,000 companies are listed on the stock exchange, with a total capital of $ 84 billion, which is equivalent to the total GDP of the planet.

The top 10,000 shareholders in these companies include 41% institutional investors (insurance, investment funds, pension funds), 27% broad shareholders, 14% public investors, 11% private companies, and 7% individual investors.

Only the top ten institutional investors manage 57% of total financial assets, while Chinese public capital accounts for the lion’s share (57%) of public investors.

As the data show, we are in the presence of a lot of wealth, focusing more on a few hands. But how much of this property goes back to society through taxes?

What we are talking about is tax evasion

To reduce the tax burden, multinational companies use various technologies. The simplest is to create a subsidiary company based in the tax center, to which the profits made by other companies in the group can be transferred.

Is another technology Transfer pricingThese include transactions (loans, trademarks, patents or services) between companies led by a parent company based in a tax center.

The so-called “blacklist” of tax sites approved by the Council of Europe does not include any European country. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that some EU member states play a key role in shifting capital to tax-exempt jurisdictions.

One of the indications of the importance of some European financial centers in the international tax avoidance system is the large inflow of foreign direct investment going there.

This has been confirmed Report on tax crimes and tax evasion”[3] The high foreign investment compared to the GDP of the European Parliament, Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands is only partially explained by real economic activity.

In fact, a portion of foreign investment goes to subsidiaries or “specific purpose companies.” These are “letterbox” companies, that is, legal entities that are physically unstable and do not carry out real financial activities, equipped to reduce the global effective burden of multinational companies.

Dutch, Luxembourg “Moderation”

Despite being two economically and demographically small countries, Luxembourg and the Netherlands attract more foreign direct investment than China.[4].

Overall, the amount of foreign investment in both European countries is slightly lower than in the United States, the world’s largest economy.

To get an idea, the amount of foreign investment to the Netherlands in 2019 was $ 4.445.969 million, and in Luxembourg it was $ 3.422.838 million. That’s 4,928 percent of Luxembourg’s GDP and 490 percent of the Netherlands. Stratospheric values ​​fall to 185 per cent and 193 per cent of GDP, excluding investment in special purpose companies.

In other words, 96% of foreign investment entering Luxembourg and 60.6% in the Netherlands are from specific purpose companies or “letter boxes”.

Legal theft

Thanks to the system described above, 40% of multinational profits are on the path of tax exemption: According to the OECD, this is about $ 800 billion, causing financial losses to 240 billion states.

If you read Amazon’s 2020 financial statements, you can see that the e – commerce giant’s European headquarters had a turnover of 44 billion, an increase of 12 billion over the previous year. In retail sales caused by a pandemic lockdown. Amazon’s European “ribbon” is responsible for all sales made in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Poland, but the tax office is located in Luxembourg, and Amazon 1 closes accounts with losses. , 2 billion (justified with investment costs), which, under the Grand Duchy’s tax legislation, guarantees the multinational 56 million tax credits, as well as subsequent tax breaks. The end result: the European Amazon, with a turnover of 44 billion by 2020, has not paid a single euro to the tax authorities.

Is this Italy?

Accordingly Tax Justice Network (Report 2020), due to international tax evasion and exemption, Italy loses $ 12.4 billion a year (approximately 10 10 billion), 2% of tax revenue. Transfers of multinational corporations fell by $ 8.8 billion and tax evasion by $ 3.6 billion. Offshore Of private individuals. The loss of income is equivalent to 9% of Italian health expenditure and 15% of education expenditure. In total, the lost resources will allow Italy to employ 379,380 nurses[5].

Multinational companies in paradise (financial)

Everyone is smiling
Not only do people laugh, but we know
As always, he laughs
For some reason nothing agrees with him[6]

We now have a few more tools to answer the opening question, and provide a first indication of the fact – hidden from the media Mainstream – What was the economic G7 size Welcome to the applause of Google, Amazon and Facebook, Or the three major multinationals to do Suffer Diversion Tax Governments in the direction of financial justice.

The reason for this is clear: in countries with subsidized taxes such as Ireland (12.5%) today the rate is 15% slightly higher than that offered by multinational companies, but clearly much lower than that offered by multinational companies. Countries (average tax rate 26%).

Here is the real historical point of the agreement reached at G7: To make tax evasion disappointing, the whole planet is being turned into a tax base for multinational companies.

Today in Italy A person earning up to ,000 15,000 pays 23%; Revenue up to 28 28,000 28 3,450 and 27% share exceeds 15,000; Earnings up to 55,000 euros exceed 6,960 euros and 38% more than 28,000 euros.

In a few years – Because of the G7 deal, the G20 and then the OECD – $ 523.964 billion (Walmart), 280.522 billion (Amazon), 260.174 billion (Apple) invoicing multinational companies will have to pay 15% of profits.

Raise your hand if you do not feel taken for a ride[7]

Marco Bersani, Attack Italy

[1]“The Ballad of Cerutti Gino” by Giorgio Gabor

[2]http://www.cnms.it/attachments/article/196/top200_2020.pdf

[3] Report on the European Parliament, Economic Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance, P8_TA (2019) 0240.

[4] Source: OECD, FDI in figures, April 2020

[5]Tax Justice Network, State Justice 2020: Tax Justice in the Age of COVID-19, November 2020.

[6] Premiata Forneria Marconi’s “Feast”

[7] When you need it, you need it