Catenaa, Monday, January 05, 2026- US multinational corporations will be exempted from paying more corporate taxes overseas in a deal finalized by the OECD.
The OECD announced on Monday that nearly 150 countries have agreed on the plan, initially crafted in 2021, to prevent large global companies from shifting profits to low-tax countries, regardless of where they operate in the world.
The amended version excludes large US-based multinational corporations from the 15% global minimum tax after negotiations between President Donald Trump’s administration and other members of the Group of Seven wealthy nations.
OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said in a statement that the agreement is a “landmark decision in international tax co-operation” and “enhances tax certainty, reduces complexity, and protects tax bases.”
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the agreement “a historic victory in preserving U.S. sovereignty and protecting American workers and businesses from extraterritorial overreach.”
The most recent version of the deal dilutes a landmark 2021 agreement that established a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15%.
The idea was to stop multinational corporations, including Apple and Nike, from using accounting and legal maneuvers to shift earnings to low- or no-tax havens.
Those havens are typically places like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, where the companies actually do little or no business.
Former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was a key driver of the 2021 OECD global tax deal and made the corporate minimum tax one of her top priorities.
The plan was widely panned by congressional Republicans who said it would make the US less competitive in a global economy.
The Trump administration in June re-negotiated the deal when congressional Republicans rolled back a so-called revenge tax provision from Trump’s big tax and spending bill that would have allowed the federal government to impose taxes on companies with foreign owners, as well as on investors from countries judged as charging “unfair foreign taxes” on US companies.
