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At the end of 2022, the Council formally approved the Directive on a global minimum corporate tax, also known as the OECD BEPS Pillar 2 initiative. The agreement comes after several months of negotiations and multiple attempts to reach unanimity among Member States.

For reference, the profit of the large multinational and domestic groups or companies with a combined annual turnover of at least €750 million will be taxed at a minimum rate of 15%. The new rules will reduce the risk of tax base erosion and profit shifting and ensure that the largest multinational groups pay the agreed global minimum rate of corporate tax. With regards to ocean carriers, shipping activities are excluded from the scope of the rule, but as mentioned by the OECD in its to the BEPS 2 rules, inland transportation is not in the scope of the ancillary activities related to shipping and will therefore be subject to the global minimum corporate tax.  The OECD also recognised in its technical guidance that including inland transportation in the scope of the corporate tax "mitigates the risk of competitive distortions between shipping companies that have vertically integrated such services and independent freight forwarding and land-based logistics service providers."

The Directive has to be transposed into Member States’ national law by the end of 2023. CLECAT welcomes the adoption of the Directive as a good step towards tax fairness between independent and carrier-integrated logistics service providers. CLECAT will continue to raise awareness on the unfair competition created by tonnage tax regime in the EU and will call for a review of the EU maritime State Aid guidelines and tonnage tax rules to ensure ancillary services are excluded from their scope.

Source: Council of the EU