ANI
Rio de janeiro
The first-ever joint declaration by G20 finance leaders vowing to cooperate on effectively taxing the world’s largest fortunes papered over deeper disagreement about the right forum to advance the agenda.
Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 major economies agreed to reference fair taxation of "ultra-high-net-worth individuals” in both their joint communique and a separate declaration on international tax cooperation on Friday.
"We will seek to engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed,” said the final draft of the G20 ministerial declaration in Rio de Janeiro.
However, fault lines have already emerged about whether to do that in talks at the United Nations or via the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of wealthier democracies founded by US andEuropean allies.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters on the sidelines of the G20 meeting that she believes the OECD, which shepherded negotiations for a global two-part corporate tax deal for the past three years, is better placed to handlesuch talks.
"We don’t want to see this shifted to the UN,” Yellen said, adding that the OECD "is a consensus-based organization. We’ve made a huge amount of progress, and the UN doesn’t have the technical expertise to do this.”