US will be exempt from global tax deal targeting profits of large multinationals
Nearly 150 countries have agreed on a landmark plan to stop large global companies shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions, but the US will be exempt from the deal, angering tax transparency groups.The plan, finalised by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, excludes large US-based multinational corporations from the 15% global minimum tax after negotiations between the Trump administration and other members of the G7.The OECD secretary general, Mathias Cormann, described the agreement as a “landmark decision in international tax cooperation” that “enhances tax certainty, reduces complexity, and protects tax bases”.Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, called the deal “a historic victory in preserving US sovereignty and protecting American workers and businesses from extraterritorial overreach.”Cormann was elected to head the OECD in 2021 with Donald Trump’s support.
A right wing former Australian finance minister, who previously argued in favour of fossil fuels and against green energy targets, Cormann is the last remaining head of a major international organisation to be appointed with the US president’s backing.The most recent version of the deal waters down a landmark 2021 agreement that set a minimum global corporate tax of 15%.The idea was to stop multinational corporations, including Apple and Nike, from using accounting and legal manoeuvres 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.Donald Trump criticised the 2021 deal negotiated by the Biden administration, saying it wasn’t applicable in the US.
The Trump administration then threatened retaliatory taxes against countries that imposed levies on US firms under the 2021 deal.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 at the time, 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.Tax transparency groups have criticised the amended OECD plan.
“This deal risks nearly a decade of global progress on corporate taxation only to allow the largest, most profitable American companies to keep parking profits in tax havens,” said Zorka Milin, policy director at the Fact Coalition, a tax transparency nonprofit.Tax watchdogs argue the minimum tax is supposed to halt an international race to the bottom for corporate taxation that has led multinational businesses to book their profits in countries with low tax rates.With Associated Press and Reuters
Former Bengals and Texas receiver Jordan Shipley severely burned in ranch accident
Former Texas star and NFL receiver Jordan Shipley is being treated in hospital after suffering severe burns in an accident on his ranch near his home town of Burnet, Texas.According to a statement from his family, Shipley was operating a machine when it caught fire. Although the 40-year-old was able to free himself from the machine “it was not before sustaining severe burns on his body in the process,” read the statement. “He was able to get to one of his workers on the ranch who drove him to a local hospital. He was then care-flighted to Austin, where he remains in critical but stable condition
Injured Ben Stokes at risk of watching final day of Ashes tour from SCG pavilion
Ben Stokes is set to spend the final day of this Ashes tour watching on from the old pavilion at the SCG and hoping for a miracle in his absence after seeing yet another Test series cut short by injury.The all-rounder had worked hard to get through all five Tests in Australia only to fall at the final hurdle, limping off 10 balls into his opening spell on the fourth morning in apparent distress. An England spokesperson later confirmed it was an issue with his right abductor (groin).Stokes did bat later in the day, emerging at No 8 but falling for one after struggling to move at the crease. The upshot is that when England come to defend a target on the final day – their lead was 119 overnight, eight wickets down – they will do so without their seam-bowling captain
The Spin | Revealed after 100 years: how a corrupt official robbed Percy Fender of the England captaincy
After a mere 100 years the Spin, always first with the news, is finally able to reveal the details of one of the more extraordinary secrets in the history of English cricket. The story comes from the private family archives of the former Surrey captain Percy Fender, which are being compiled into a fascinating new documentary film. It has always been a mystery that Fender, who was described by Wisden as “the shrewdest county captain of his generation” was never picked to lead England. After all these years, it now appears he was blackmailed out of the job by a corrupt cricket official.In a private audio recording made shortly before his death in 1985, Fender explains that in May 1924 he was approached “by a gentleman who was very well known in the cricket world” who, during the course of a conversation over two half-bottles of champagne in Fender’s flat at the Adelphi, offered him the England captaincy for the 1924-25 Ashes tour
Jacob Bethell plays starring role in Ashes Wars Episode 5: A New Hope | Barney Ronay
Et in dystopia ego. In the midst of death, we are in life. On a throbbingly hot deep blue afternoon in Sydney, as this ghost ship of an England Ashes tour creaked towards its final dock, the fourth day of the fifth Test produced an unexpected late plot twist. Something good happened.Jacob Bethell batted for six hours from mid-morning to close of play and scored a hundred of rare beauty at the SCG
Bethell’s elegant first Test century presses pause on Australia’s Ashes party
It was good. So good. So unbelievably good. On the penultimate day of a tour packed with regret for England, a star was born as Jacob Bethell, 22 years young, compiled a truly golden hundred that offered hope for the future.There were no histrionics upon getting there either, no suggestion this was a maiden first-class century compiled in the heat of an Ashes Test
Beau Webster steps off the sidelines into the light as promise of Cameron Green wilts | Geoff Lemon
There was an irony to the fact that Cameron Green’s catch made Beau Webster’s day look even better. Green had not had a good one, having earlier dived in front of Australia’s most prolific slip catcher to spoil a simple Steve Smith catch. It followed a poor day the day before, skying a pull shot after getting settled on 37, and a poor series before that. Then came Webster, an off-break swept into the deep, and Green’s long legs ate up the turf before crashing his body into a dive that gathered up the ball in its fall, the two Australians combining for what might be the tallest wicket in Test history.There is usually only room for a single two-metre all-rounder in a team, unless they’re operating at specialist level in one discipline
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