Nigeria has opted out of a global tax deal negotiated under the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OEDC)/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS).
BEPS refers to corporate tax planning strategies used by multinationals to shift profits from higher tax jurisdictions to lower tax jurisdictions or no-tax locations where there is little or no economic activity, thus eroding the tax-base of the higher-tax jurisdictions using deductible payments such as interest or royalties.
Kenya, Pakistan and Sri Lanka also opted out alongside Nigeria.
Nigeria’s position was predicated, among others, on the unreliability of the economic impact of the deal for developing countries.
The OECD estimates that countries lose $100-$240 billion worth of revenue annually to BEPS practices, which is the equivalent to 4-10 per cent of the global corporate income tax revenue.
The deal set out to introduce a global minimum tax rate and new profit reallocation rules, which aims to give countries a fairer chance to collect tax revenues from multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in or generating revenues from their jurisdictions.
In a new report titled, “OECD Global Tax Deal: Key Elements, Opportunities and Challenges,” Global Financial Integrity (GFI) stated that the framework represents a group of countries and jurisdictions working together to address systemic issues within the global taxation system that cause an inequitable distribution of tax revenues among countries and jurisdictions.
It operates under the leadership of the OECD, but any country or jurisdiction is allowed to join and participate.
The global tax deal represents a major reform to the rules governing the international tax system, aimed at bringing an end to tax havens and profit-shifting by multinational enterprises The deal specifically aims to address challenges that arise from the digitalisation of the economy, and is broken down into two pillars.
