Steven N.Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday that every effort would be made to get Hungary to rescind its veto on the global minimum tax on companies. The French President spoke after the European Council, consisting of EU heads of state and government, concluded its day-and-a-half meeting in Brussels.
France, which holds the rotating EU presidency until July 1, has a strong incentive to try to reach an agreement in its final week leading the European Union.
Macron stated that in the interest of making a compromise, they would be willing to go to the limits of reasonableness but no further, reported Népszava.
So far, 140 countries have signed on to a general minimum business tax rate of 15% under a framework by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The European Union wants to join this international agreement, with EU leaders claiming that the measure would provide countries with huge benefits. However, Hungary is alone in the EU in not supporting the plans for a global minimum tax.
The Hungarian Parliament has already passed a resolution rejecting the new tax.
Reacting to President Macron’s intention to overcome Hungarian resistance to the global minimum tax, the Government Information Center wrote in an email that not a word was said about the Hungarian government’s rationale on the matter:
As government officials have said several times, the global minimum tax would double the effective tax rate for Hungarian companies. Our effective business tax rate is 7.5% at present, and the global minimum tax would increase this to 15%. This will mean a tax rate double the current amount, which is why we are against it.
-the office wrote. [Magyar Hang]
