The Counselor of Economy and Finance of the Basque Government, Pedro Azpiazu, met with the Director of the European Fiscal Observatory (EUTAX Observatory), Panayiotis Nicolaides, to analyse possible common forms of collaboration, as well as to present the Basque Economic Agreement not only from a historical perspective, but for its adaptation to international taxation as the best example of its full validity.

The European Tax Observatory is an independent body that conducts research on taxation, contributes to a democratic and inclusive debate on the future of taxation and fosters dialogue between the scientific community, civil society and policy makers in the European Union and throughout the world. In addition, he is the author of the report “Collecting Effects of the Global Minimum Tax: Estimates Country by Country”.

On this issue, in October last year, 137 countries within the OECD supported a historic multilateral agreement to transform global corporate taxation. This agreement proposes, on the one hand, to guarantee that large multinational companies pay taxes where they operate and make profits. On the other, it proposes a minimum effective taxation of 15%, which aims to avoid tax competition between countries and fight against tax avoidance.

In the EU Member States, these agreements will materialize with the transposition into internal tax regulations of two Directives proposed by the European Commission. The planned calendar is challenging and the expected entry into force to approve the minimum tax of 15% is January 1, 2023 (having presented the Directive proposal on December 22, 2021 and its approval by the ECOFIN is expected in March 2022). For this reason, the Economic Agreement and the Basque tax regulations will have to adapt to this new reality that is expected to be imposed next year, for which it is of great interest to move forward in this regard.

The Minister Azpiazu has been accompanied by the Vice-minister of Treasury of Finance, Itziar Agirre, and the Vice-minister of Economy and European Funds, Jordi Campàs.