Europe is taxing multinational profits less and less: "These tax regimes could stimulate growth and innovation"

Of the 140 states that signed up to the 15% minimum tax on multinational profits to combat tax avoidance, the 27 members of the European Union were among the first to implement this measure for companies with annual turnover exceeding €750 million. This was in January 2024, less than three years after the validation of the agreement reached within the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the G20. While they were negotiating this floor, they were working at the national level to lower the tax rate for these multinationals.

Between 2014 and 2022, the statutory rate in the EU actually fell from 23% to 21%, and the effective rate even further, from 20.8% to 18.1% on average, reaching its lowest point since the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, calculated Sarah Godar and Jules Ducept of the European Tax Observatory, after studying the 295 tax reforms adopted during those years.

In France, for example, the statutory corporate tax rate fell from 38% to 25% over this period. The two researchers at this independent research lab, hosted by the Paris School of Economics and directed by