The G7 tax deal is an unworkable mess

Poverty will be abolished. Governments will be able to spend again. Inequality will be eradicated, our welfare systems secured and the power of the tech giants will finally be curbed. We will hear a lot of hype about today’s global tax deal. Given that the liberal-left have spent the last decade complaining that the main problem in the world is that Apple and Facebook don’t pay enough tax, a lot will be riding on the agreement reached by the finance ministers of the G7 today. There is just one small problem, however. The deal is an unworkable mess.

Sure, the headlines are fine. There will be a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 per cent designed to stop countries from unfairly competing with one another. Companies will be taxed more heavily in the countries where they make their main sales, rather than simply shifting revenues to whichever shady island happens to have the lowest tax rate that year.