The OECD has been working on the establishment of a global minimum tax rate as part of its Pillar 2 of its GLoBE proposals. It has plans to meet before year end in an attempt to thrash out the final form of and adopt their proposals, although the US is currently pressing for a pause until after the Presidential elections, and the continuing spat over an EU digital services tax under GloBE Pillar 1 continues to rumble on.
In the meantime for those looking to see what they think the global minimum rate may well be the Dutch are due to introduce a similar proposal to Pillar 2 in regard to payments of royalties and interest.
The proposal will impose a withholding tax on interest and royalty payments to jurisdictions which are either on the EU non-cooperative list or have a tax rate of less than 9% (and of course subject to various anti-avoidance rules). Effectively it imposes a global rate of 9% or more on interest and royalties. If this is any indication of the level that the global minimum rate will be then that is good news for Gibraltar with its statutory rate of 10%. Only time will tell but many jurisdictions will be watching these developments closely.
A withholding tax (WHT) of 21.7% is introduced as of 1 January 2021 on intra-group interest and royalties (deemed) paid or accrued by a Dutch corporate taxpayer (entity or permanent establishment) to a related entity resident in: - A jurisdiction with a statutory tax rate lower than 9% - A jurisdiction that is included on the European Union (EU) list of non-cooperative jurisdictions
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