17/08/2026
$500 billion. That's how much more governments could collect in corporate tax every year — without any country raising its rates.
The change is simple to state: tax multinationals where they actually operate, instead of where they declare their profits. Today, companies can separate the two, booking income in jurisdictions with little connection to where the real economic activity takes place. "Pay where you say" instead of "pay where you play."
On ABC Australia Radio National, Co-Chair sets out what the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation would change: allocating taxing rights according to measurable factors — sales, employment, productive activity — rather than accounting fictions; requiring multinationals to report publicly what they earn and pay in every country; and negotiating the rules at the , where every country has a seat, rather than in a forum of the wealthiest economies.
For lower-income countries the stakes are highest. Even comparatively modest additional receipts would transform what many currently collect from multinationals — and the revenue lost today is revenue not spent on public services, climate measures and social protection.
🎧 Listen to the full interview: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/sundayextra/un-tax-system-professor-jayati-ghosh/107039240
