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More governments are coming to realise that a corporate tax race to the bottom hurts the common good, Transparency International (TI) said in a note it sent to Financial Nigeria last week. The international anticorruption watchdog said the finance ministers and central bank governors from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and the US – collectively the G7 – are apparently closing in on a deal for countering abusive corporate tax practices.

A consensus within the G7 could help boost international cooperation and pave the way for a global minimum corporate tax rate later this year. But the G7 action won’t be enough to achieve tax justice, according to TI. Therefore, the anticorruption body said it is pressing for measures to tackle corporate secrecy.

TI also said that lack of country-by-country reporting rules for corporations will continue to undermine tax justice unless all major financial centres require multinational companies to disclose where and how much tax they pay.

TI is also advocating against corporate tax incentives, saying there is no evidence that it works, and that its new report shows industries and corporations can and do exert undue political influence and hire tax professionals to help reduce their tax bills.

The first G7 Finance Meeting under the UK Presidency took place on Friday, 28 May 2021.