On Saturday, the finance ministers from G7 nations announced their support for a global corporate minimum tax of 15%, which would require companies to pay at least a 15% rate in each country they operate in. It represents one of the biggest attempts to bring an outdated global tax system from black-and-white into Technicolor.
The backstory: Multinational companies have been taking advantage of existing tax rules by shuffling money between jurisdictions with super-low rates. The IMF estimates that 40% of all foreign direct investment is “phantom” in nature, meaning it’s money that passes through empty corporate shells, often for the purposes of lowering a company’s tax bill.