International Coalition Letter Urges World Leaders to Reject Global Minimum Tax

June 23, 2021

Dear Members of Congress,

We, the undersigned organizations, representing taxpayers and consumers across the globe, strongly oppose the creation of a global minimum corporate tax rate agreement by the G7 nations. This agreement would significantly damage the valuable tax competition among countries, and would cause undue harm to businesses, workers, and economies around the world.

On June 5th, 2021, the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed at a Group of Seven (G7) meeting to institute a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15 percent. The official 2021 G7 Summit will occur in the United Kingdom from June 11th to 13th. Leaders from the G7 countries are expected to promote an even more comprehensive agreement on international taxation at the G20 meeting in July.

A global minimum tax would greatly curtail the force of tax competition. This competition between nations offers a critical check on the power of governments and it is vital for ensuring efficient and reasonable levels of taxation. According to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, “Tax competition can help to keep taxes closer to their optimal level, constraining wasteful government excess.” Instituting a global minimum tax would reduce pressure on higher-tax governments, and overall corporate tax rates would rise to inefficient and confiscatory levels.

The proposed 15 percent minimum tax rate would be particularly detrimental to countries such as Ireland, Bulgaria, and Hungary that currently keep their corporate tax rates at lower, more competitive rates. A global minimum tax also threatens poorer, developing countries who need to maintain high growth rates in order to be lifted out of poverty. Cutting corporate tax rates leads to an increase in investment, productivity, and economic growth, output, and ultimately higher standards of living. Low corporate tax rates are an important tool for developing countries to improve the lives of their citizens, and a global minimum tax rate would

impair the effectiveness of that tool. It’s also important to point out that countries like China have no intention to agree on or implement such a global minimum tax and any other smart country will immediately lower its corporate tax rate and reap the benefits. The G7s agreement on a global minimum corporate tax rate should be abandoned and should be rejected by the G20 in July. Individual countries should be able to follow their own open democratic processes to pursue the tax rules they see fit and not be forced to cede sovereignty to a group that might not act in their own interests.

International bodies should not infringe on the tax systems of sovereign countries and should be focused on facilitating tax competition, free trade, and economic prosperity for countries of all sizes.

Sincerely,

Grover NorquistPresident, Americans for Tax Reform (United States)

Cristina BerechetSecretary General, World Taxpayers Associations (Global)

Brent Gardner Chief Government Affairs Officer, Americans for Prosperity (United States)

Jonas TorricoExecutive Director, Asociación Argentina de Contribuyentes (Argentina)

Ozlem YilmazGeneral Coordinator, Association for Liberal Thinking (Turkey)

Barbara KolmDirector, Austrian Economics Center (Austria)

Julia KrilPresident, BETA Ukraine (Ukraine)

Pieter CleppeEditor-in-Chief, Brussels Report (Belgium)

Troy LaniganPresident, Canada Strong and Free Network (Canada)

Scott HennigPresident & CEO, Canadian Taxpayers Federation (Canada)

Rocio GuijarroGeneral Manager, Cedice Libertad (Venezuela)

Daniel MitchellChairman, Center for Freedom and Prosperity (United States)

Roberto SalinasExecutive Director, Center for Latin America, Atlas Network (Mexico)

Edo OmercevicDirector, Center for Public Policies and Economic Analyses (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

Tomasz Kolodziejczuk Founder, Center for Capitalism (Poland)

Ignacio Arsuaga President, CitizenGO (Spain)

Chip FordPresident/Executive Director, Citizens for Limited Taxation (United States)

Andrés BarrientosCofounder, Ciudadano Austral Foundation (Chile)

Marek TatalaVice President, Civil Development Forum (Poland)

Prasad DasanayakaPartner, Dasanayaka Associates (Sri Lanka)

Margherit SaltiniSecretary General, Democratic Youth Committee of Europe (Italy)

José AndradeExecutive Director, Ecuadorian Institute of Political Economy (Ecuador)

Gary KavanaghDirector, Edmund Burke Institute (Ireland)

Mario Alvino FantiniEditor-in-Chief, The European Conservative (Austria)

Diego Sanchez de la Cruz CEO, Foro Regulación Inteligente (Spain)

Emilio CavigliaDirector, FREE Argentina (Argentina)

Gabriel MaldonadoDirector Ejecutivo, Free Fundación (Venezuela)

Máté HajbaDirector, Free Market Foundation (Hungary)

Chris HattinghDeputy Director, Free Market Foundation South Africa (South Africa)

Elena Toledo Executive Director, Fundación Eleutéra (Honduras)

Francisco IsettaPresident, Fundación FREE (Uruguay)

Federico FernandezPresident, Fundación Internacional Bases (Argentina)

Juan PinaSecretary-General, Fundación para el Avance de la Libertad (Spain)

Slobodan FranetaChairman, Global Communication Network (Montenegro)

Richard ZundritschDirector, Hayek Institute (Austria)

Scott KaufmanLegislative Director, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (United States)

Shantha KumarPresident, India Tax Payer (India)

Svetla KostadinovaExecutive Director, Institute for Market Economics (Bulgaria)

Krassen StanchevProfessor, University of Sofia (Bulgaria)

Armen Arzumanyan Chairman, Institute of Nations (Armenia)

Maria Clara Escobar PelaezExecutive Director, Instituto de Ciencia Polvetica (Colombia)

Jose TapiaExecutive Director, Instituto de Libre Empresa (Peru)

Federico RabinoCEO, Instituto Fernando de la Mora (Paraguay)

Alejandro ChafuenPresident, International Freedom Educational Foundation (United States)

Nicolas Lecaussin Director, IREF (France)

Masaru UchiyamaPresident, Japanese for Tax Reform (Japan)

Nicos RompapasExecutive Director, KEFiM – Markos Dragoumis (Greece)

Shari WilliamsExecutive Director, Krieble Foundation (United States)

Oliver KesslerDirector, Liberales Institut (Switzerland)

Camilo GuzmanExecutive Director, Libertank (Colombia)

Patrick MardiniCEO, LIMS (Lebanon)

Zoran LowExecutive Manager, Lipa, Croatian Taxpayers Association (Croatia)

Vladimir MacielHead, Mackenzie Center for Economic Freedom (Brazil)

Daniele CapezzoneCofounder, Mercatus (Italy)

Bienvenido Oplas Jr. President, Minimal Government Thinkers (Philippines)

Pete Sepp President, National Taxpayers Union (United States)

Jordan WilliamsExecutive Director, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union (New Zealand)

Andrea GabbaCo-Founder, Osservatore Repubblicano (Italy)

Yuya Watase President, Pacific Alliance Institute (Japan)

Pascal Salin Honorary Professor, Paris-Dauphine University (France)

Juan PinaSecretary General, Unión de Contribuyentes (Spain)

Lorenzo MontanariExecutive Director, Property Rights Alliance (United States)

Skafti Hardarson Chairman, Samtök Skattgreiðenda (Iceland)

Maureen BlumPresident, Strategic Coalitions & Initiatives LLC (United States)

Krassen StanchevProfessor, Sofia University (Bulgaria)

Anders YdstedtChairman, Svensk Tidskrift (Sweden)

John O’Connell Chief Executive, Taxpayers’ Alliance (United Kingdom)

Manu Guar President, Taxpayers Association of Bharat (India)

David WilliamsPresident, Taxpayers Protection Alliance (United States)

Ralph BenkoChairman, The Capitalist League (United States)

Giuseppe SabellaDirector, Think-in (Italy)

Mykhailo LavrovskyiCEO, Ukrainian Economic Freedoms Foundation (Ukraine)

Dick PattenPresident, American Business Defense Council (United States)

Christopher LingleProfessor of Economics, Universidad Francisco Marroquin (United States)

Manuel RosalesPresident and CEO, Verissimo (United States)

Tomasz Wroblewski CEO, Warsaw Enterprise Institute (Poland)