A UN resolution on establishing a legally-binding UN tax convention that could potentially deliver the biggest shake-up in history to the global tax system.
The draft resolution, ‘Promotion of inclusive and effective international tax cooperation at the United Nations’, will kick-start negotiations early in 2024 if it is adopted at an upcoming vote at the UN General Assembly.
According to the Tax Justice Network, a UN tax convention is urgently needed to prevent countries from losing nearly trillion to tax havens over the next decade – the equivalent of losing a year of worldwide spending on public health.
It said a framework tax convention would create the first ever, globally inclusive, democratic process to set tax rules and standards, with the potential to recover much of the 0 billion a year in estimated tax revenue losses that countries suffer due to cross-border tax abuse.2
The draft resolution, tabled by Nigeria, signals a direction in favour of the strongest of the three options proposed by the UN Secretary General. The draft resolution “emphasizes that a United Nations comprehensive convention on international tax cooperation is needed in order to strengthen international tax cooperation and make it fully inclusive and more effective; and recognizes that this will also help in accelerating the implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
The draft resolution, if adopted, would establish an intergovernmental committee tasked with the job of drafting the UN tax convention by June 2025. The exact nature of any new convention will form part of the negotiations.
Tax Justice Network’s advocacy consultant in New York, Amelia Evans, said: “This is an exciting moment. For the first time, the countries of the world are engaged in discussions about the value of a UN tax convention. The question in New York now is how the negotiations about a UN tax convention will take place, not if.”
And Alex Cobham, chief executive of Tax Justice Network, added: “Almost every country in the world stands to gain from agreement on an ambitious UN framework convention on tax, because almost every country suffers significant revenue losses due to international tax abuse. The OECD has taken things as far as it can, and it’s clear now that only globally inclusive, transparent negotiations will deliver. We’re more than halfway through the Sustainable Development Goals period, with nothing to show for the promise of enhanced international cooperation against tax abuse – and that’s why there’s so much momentum now.
“A UN framework convention on tax, recapturing hundreds of billions of dollars a year in lost revenues, could be the SDGs’ greatest legacy. People in countries all around the world should be demanding that their governments push for the most ambitious outcome possible.”
A UN resolution on establishing a legally-binding UN tax convention that could potentially deliver the biggest shake-up in history to the global tax system.
The draft resolution, ‘Promotion of inclusive and effective international tax cooperation at the United Nations’, will kick-start negotiations early in 2024 if it is adopted at an upcoming vote at the UN General Assembly.
According to the Tax Justice Network, a UN tax convention is urgently needed to prevent countries from losing nearly trillion to tax havens over the next decade – the equivalent of losing a year of worldwide spending on public health.
It said a framework tax convention would create the first ever, globally inclusive, democratic process to set tax rules and standards, with the potential to recover much of the 0 billion a year in estimated tax revenue losses that countries suffer due to cross-border tax abuse.2
The draft resolution, tabled by Nigeria, signals a direction in favour of the strongest of the three options proposed by the UN Secretary General. The draft resolution “emphasizes that a United Nations comprehensive convention on international tax cooperation is needed in order to strengthen international tax cooperation and make it fully inclusive and more effective; and recognizes that this will also help in accelerating the implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
The draft resolution, if adopted, would establish an intergovernmental committee tasked with the job of drafting the UN tax convention by June 2025. The exact nature of any new convention will form part of the negotiations.
Tax Justice Network’s advocacy consultant in New York, Amelia Evans, said: “This is an exciting moment. For the first time, the countries of the world are engaged in discussions about the value of a UN tax convention. The question in New York now is how the negotiations about a UN tax convention will take place, not if.”
And Alex Cobham, chief executive of Tax Justice Network, added: “Almost every country in the world stands to gain from agreement on an ambitious UN framework convention on tax, because almost every country suffers significant revenue losses due to international tax abuse. The OECD has taken things as far as it can, and it’s clear now that only globally inclusive, transparent negotiations will deliver. We’re more than halfway through the Sustainable Development Goals period, with nothing to show for the promise of enhanced international cooperation against tax abuse – and that’s why there’s so much momentum now.
“A UN framework convention on tax, recapturing hundreds of billions of dollars a year in lost revenues, could be the SDGs’ greatest legacy. People in countries all around the world should be demanding that their governments push for the most ambitious outcome possible.”
“A UN framework convention on tax, recapturing hundreds of billions of dollars a year in lost revenues, could be the SDGs’ greatest legacy. People in countries all around the world should be demanding that their governments push for the most ambitious outcome possible.”
Alex Cobham, Chief Executive, Tax Justice Network
