Joanna Robin<\/b><\/p>\n
Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>The United Nations is on the cusp of negotiating an international tax convention to tackle inequality and tax abuse, but transparency advocates say some wealthy countries are \u201cdragging their feet.\u201d<\/p>\n Nigeria has taken another big step toward shaking up the international tax system, calling for a legally-binding U.N. tax convention in a new draft resolution.<\/p>\n The resolution, filed on Oct. 11 on behalf of African member states, is the latest development in an ongoing tussle between the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development over which organization should shape the global tax agenda.<\/p>\n A U.N. tax convention would \u201cstrengthen international tax cooperation and make it fully inclusive and more effective,\u201d the resolution said, echoing the wording of an earlier report by U.N. Secretary-General Anto\u0301nio Guterres, which criticized the OECD for ignoring the needs of developing countries.<\/p>\n For decades, international tax policy has been dominated by the OECD, a group of 38 mostly high-income countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. But the outsized influence of the organization\u2019s wealthy countries has led many lower-income countries, including some OECD members, to question whether a more representative body should take the reins.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo main features of the OECD are that it\u2019s exclusionary \u2014 it\u2019s a member organization that prioritizes the economic interests of its member states \u2014 and that it\u2019s been shown not to have effective rule-making power,\u201d said Alex Cobham, the chief executive of the Tax Justice Network advocacy group.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing that, I think, has changed is that a lot of OECD members have also had to accept that it\u2019s not even effective for them.\u201d<\/p>\n If the draft resolution is adopted by the U.N. General Assembly at an upcoming vote in November, it will require the creation of an ad hoc intergovernmental committee of 10 member states, with equal gender and regional representation.<\/p>\n The committee will be tasked with drafting a U.N. tax convention by June 2025, taking into account \u201cthe needs, priorities and capacities of all countries, in particular developing countries and countries in special situations,\u201d according to the resolution.<\/p>\n The resolution also calls for the committee to consider the impact of international tax rules on inequality, gender outcomes and the environment, and to decide how best to tackle \u201ctax-related illicit financial flows.\u201d<\/p>\n A separate resolution from the African member states, adopted at the end of last year, pushed for the U.N. to increase efforts to claw back revenue lost through tax evasion and avoidance. In August, the Tax Justice Network warned tax havens could cost countries nearly $5 trillion over the next decade.<\/p>\n For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joanna Robin Africa-Press – Namibia. The United Nations is on the cusp of negotiating an international tax convention to tackle inequality and tax abuse, but transparency advocates say some wealthy countries are \u201cdragging their feet.\u201d Nigeria has taken another big step toward shaking up the international tax system, calling for a legally-binding U.N. tax convention […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":56880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-56881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\n