The purpose of the UN tax negotiations is to deliver draft Terms of Reference for the new UN tax convention by the end of August 2024.

The mandate from the negotiations comes from a resolution that was tabled by the Africa Group at the UN and adopted by a large majority at the UN General Assembly at the end of 2023. While some governments voted against the resolution, a consensus agreement on the road ahead was reached during a first negotiating round on organisational matters held at the UN in February 2024.

Commenting on the upcoming negotiations, Tove Maria Ryding, Tax Coordinator at the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) said:

“Every year, countries around the world continue to lose hundreds of billions of dollars due to international tax dodging by the world’s wealthiest people and corporations. These resources are desperately needed to fund public services, development and action to stop the global environmental crises. There really is no time to waste, and so we call on all governments to show urgency and commitment in delivering a fair, ambitious and effective UN Tax Convention.

“While transboundary tax abuse and the broken international tax system impacts developing countries particularly hard, both rich and poor countries have a lot to gain from developing a fair and effective global tax framework. It was deeply concerning to see that a number of OECD countries voted no to starting the negotiation of a UN Tax Convention, but we were happy to see them have a change of heart and come back to the negotiating table in February. Now we urge all governments to show the urgency and political will it takes to solve this global problem.

“The upcoming UN negotiations will address some very important issues, including how to ensure fair taxation of wealth and corporate profits. We are calling on governments to ensure that tax systems are fully aligned with their global commitments, including the protection of human rights, provision of quality public services for all, and the objectives to reduce inequalities and stop global environmental crises. We also want to see progress on issues of transparency, including by letting the public see how much tax multinational corporations are paying in each country where they operate.”

ENDS

Media contact: Julia Ravenscroft, Communications Manager, Eurodad: [email protected]/ +44 7958 184 695.

Notes to editors

The negotiations will be open to participation by civil society, journalists and other interested actors, as well as live-streamed on UN Web TV.

Updates from the UN Tax Convention negotiations can be found on https://financing.desa.un.org/un-tax-convention

In March 2024, over 170 civil society organisations and trade unions made a joint submission to the UN outlining the key issues that must be address by the new UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. The submission can be found here: https://financing.desa.un.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/Civil%20Society%20Financing%20for%20Development%20Mechanism_Input_AHC%20Tax_2.pdf

A number of governments and other actors have also submitted their positions on the UN tax negotiations – the full list of submissions can be found here: https://financing.desa.un.org/un-tax-convention/inputs

The mandate for the UN tax negotiations is UN General Assembly resolution78/230, which can be found here: https://financing.desa.un.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/A.RES_.78.230_English.pdf

The voting record from the UN General Assembly shows how governments voted when the resolution was adopted by the 2^nd Committee of the UN General Assembly in November 2023. The voting record can be found here (paragraph 9): https://undocs.org/en/A/78/459/Add.8