‘Deal to be had’ on global tech tax reform: Sunak

LONDON: Chancellor Rishi Sunak has urged Joe Biden to do a deal on the taxation of tech giants such as Google and Facebook as part of a global shake-up of business levies.

Finance ministers from the G7 group of leading industrialised nations — including the UK and US — will meet in London on Friday, a week before Biden flies in for the leaders’ summit in Cornwall.

The US President has called for a minimum global corporation tax level — with 15 per cent proposed as a base rate — to stop firms using offshore havens. But the UK wants to ensure that US tech firms pay tax for their activities in the Britain to the Exchequer.

Sunak told the Mail on Sunday: “I want to make sure we get the right deal for British taxpayers, that we level the playing field for British high streets and that’s what I’m doing… Large multinational companies, particularly digital companies, are able by the nature of their businesses not to pay the right tax in the right places.

“And that’s not fair and means there isn’t a level playing field with high street businesses. And that’s what I want to fix. That’s what we’re fighting hard to fix in these negotiations. If everyone works hard over the next few days and weeks, I’m confident that we can find a good place. But it has to be the right deal for Britain and that’s what this week’s negotiations will be about.”

He added: “We understand why an agreement on global corporation tax is important for our American friends. We need them to understand why fair taxation of tech companies is important to us. There’s a deal to be had, so I’m urging the US — and all of the G7 — to come to the table next week and get it done.”

Discussions about taxing multinational digital firms are being considered at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development but a G7 consensus would add to the momentum for an international deal.

The Chancellor was praised by Boris Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings during his epic seven-hour session with MPs on Wednesday, escaping the hostile fire aimed at many of his Government colleagues.

Ahead of the session there were reports that Cummings was determined to oust the Prime Minister, with Sunak seen as the most likely figure to succeed him. Asked whether he shared Cummings’ reservations about the Prime Minister, the Chancellor said: “The PM’s got an exceptionally hard job which I see up close every day … The decisions he has to make are just extraordinarily difficult.

“I think people appreciate that and realise that all of us are working as hard as we can to try to do the best job we can in difficult circumstances. The PM carries this enormous burden of trying to get these awful decisions right.” Sunak said he had not spoken to Cummings since his departure from the Government last year.