Putin’s Groom of the Stool may occupy the Kremlin’s number two position
BIDEN TAX PLAN/HUNGARY
It’s been a while since I got excited about Joe Biden’s global tax reform plan, which would – in a complex, not-very-satisfactory but ultimately better-than-nothing kind of a way – finally prevent (if only a bit) multinational companies from abusing flaws in global regulations to pay no tax. This time last year, fully 130 countries signed up to the scheme, and I did allow myself to get unwisely hopeful that this might be a real inflexion point.
Hollow laugh. I should have known.
Obviously, the Republican Party was opposed to the plan from the onset, because the idea of everyone being liable to pay the taxes voted on by the people’s elected representatives is a violation of the principles on which the United States was founded (for the avoidance of doubt, this is a joke), but it did look like the White House had managed to get the plan past European opposition, which suggested there could be enough international support to sneak it over the line.
That has now fallen apart, with the key opposition coming from Hungary. The European Union has to agree fiscal policy unanimously, which gives Budapest a veto over EU policy, and that veto has now been exercised. Speaking as a Brit, pretty much the only upside of Brexit that I could see was the prospect of not having key aspects of foreign policy vetoed by Viktor Orban. Sadly, it turns out that regarding global tax policy he gets to veto things whether we like it or not, so it’s suddenly not looking like much of an upside at all.