Global tax rate for multinational corporations is a ‘great idea’

Sky News contributor Peter Switzer says the agreement between G7 countries to back a 15 per cent tax rate on multinational corporations is a “great idea”. “I think it’s going to be very difficult to actually get every country to sign up to it,” he said. “But the bottom line is … this is targeted to get the big companies of the world, Google, Amazon and Apple and whatever to pay a fair amount of tax and they’ve been using a thing called transfer pricing for ages. “Basically, you’ve got Apple – they have a headquarters in Cork – Apple in Australia it buys services from Ireland, they overcharge which then reduces the profit of Apple in Australia, increases the profit of Apple in Ireland. “And our tax system can’t really get much tax off Apple because they’ve effectively constructed a lower profit. “They’ve been doing this right around the world, other companies have been doing it, at long last politicians are having some guts and they’re going after these guys. “It’s a great idea”.