France pushes for 25pc target for taxing multinationals

Countries should be able to tax a quarter of big multinationals' profits no matter where they are earned, France proposed on Saturday at a G20 finance ministers meeting focused on overhauling the rules for cross-border corporate taxation. 

Key details remain to be hammered out after G20 finance chiefs formally endorsed the outline of plans that would make new rules for where multinationals get taxed and set a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 per cent.

The emergence of digital commerce has made it possible for big tech firms to book profits in low-tax countries regardless where they money is earned.

The rules, to be finalised at a Rome summit in October, would allow countries where revenues are earned to tax 20-30 per cent of a big multinational's excess profit - defined as profit in excess of 10 per cent of revenue.

Developing countries, such as Brazil, have been pushing for a higher share, EU Economics Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said at the meeting.

"I think that the best solution would be a level of allocation of profit of 25 per cent to meet the concerns of some developing countries which are legitimate concerns," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters.