Portuguese government moves on measure that “should have been imposed in 2022”
Portugal’s AD government is proceeding with a minimum 15% taxation mechanism for multinational and national groups, according to a package of measures approved today in the Council of Ministers.
This is one of the 60 measures in the package the government presented to speed-up the national economy, although it is also the transposition of a European Union (EU) directive on a minimum level of taxation on profits of multinational companies and large national groups.
Portugal was late in complying with the transposition of the directive. Indeed, the European Commission opened an infringement procedure.
Finance minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento told reporters after the Council of Ministers that the transposition “should have been done by the end of 2022.. It is already a year and a half late”.
As a result, the government is “doing something that the Portuguese state should have already done: imposing that multinationals pay the fair minimum amount of their taxes”.
At issue is the EU law that came into force on January 1 to introduce a minimum effective tax rate of 15% for large companies active in EU member states, covering multinationals and large national groups with combined financial revenues of more than €750 million a year.
The EU directive followed a global agreement reached by the G20 and the OECD. It aims to create “greater fairness and stability in the tax landscape in the EU and globally, by limiting the race to the bottom in corporate tax rates and reducing the incentive for companies to shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions“.
Source: LUSA
