The US Treasury Department wants a global tax higher than 15 percent

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will push her G20 counterparts (the world's 20 largest economies) this week to set a global minimum corporate tax rate above 15 percent, agreed by 130 countries last week. This was stated on Tuesday evening by representatives of the US Treasury Department. The final decision on the tax rate is not expected until the next stages of negotiations. The exact amount of the tax and potential exemptions are among the issues that have not yet been decided, although 130 countries reached a historic preliminary agreement last week at a meeting of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris. These countries have outlined a framework for a global minimum tax and a redistribution of tax rights for large multinational companies. The agreement is expected to be approved by G20 finance ministers at a meeting on Friday and Saturday in Venice, Italy. Negotiations on a global minimum tax are due to end in October at a summit of G20 leaders, a source from the US Treasury Department said. President Joe Biden's administration, meanwhile, is proposing to raise the US minimum tax on intangible "overseas" corporate income to 21 percent, along with a new "enforceable" tax that would prevent companies from deducting taxes paid in countries that do not accept the new global minimum rate. According to Washington sources, several countries, along with the United States, are pushing for a global tax of more than 15 percent. 139 countries participated in the OECD's global tax negotiations, nine of which did not accede to the agreement: Barbados, Estonia, Ireland, Hungary, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Sri Lanka. Apart from Peru, which has abstained from voting for the domestic political crisis, these are countries that use low tax rates to attract multinational companies. Other sources said that Kenya and Nigeria did not like the guarantees offered to developing countries and described them as insufficient. Ireland, in turn, said it supported a measure to redistribute taxes paid by multinationals among the countries in which they do business, but opposed the 15 percent minimum rate. Hungary also described the 15 percent rate as too high and said it would affect economic activity.