G7 FINANCE CHIEFS OK MINIMUM 15% TAX ON TECH GIANTS

The G7 finance ministers have agreed to make big tech companies like Apple and Google pay at least 15-percent taxes worldwide, in a major step towards global tax reform, Larissa Schwedes reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

"I am delighted to announce that today after years of discussion G7 finance ministers have reached a historic agreement to reform the global tax system," British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak tweeted on Saturday.

In addition to the minimum corporation tax of 15 percent, large companies are to pay taxes in the country where they generate revenue, and not in the location of their headquarters, according to a statement of the ministers.

The agreement is a blow to countries with low corporate taxes such as Ireland, where Google and Facebook are headquartered.

Instead, tech giants are to pay taxes where their users and customers are located - all around the globe.

The rules would apply to international firms with a profit margin of at least 10 percent, and 20 percent of the profit above that margin would be taxed in the country where it was made.

Sunak said the "historic" decision would make the global tax system "fit for the global digital age." German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz described the breakthrough as a "tax revolution."

He added: "The seven most important industrialized nations today backed the concept of minimum taxation for companies. This is very good news for tax justice and solidarity, and bad news for tax havens around the world."

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