Today, the G7 Finance Ministers issued a communiqué announcing their joint agreement on new global tax rules, including a global minimum corporate tax rate and a special new tax on some of the world’s largest corporations.
In response to the G7 agreement, Tove Maria Ryding, Tax Coordinator at the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), said:
“We have three overall concerns with the new global tax measures that the G7 countries are outlining. In essence, they are not fair, they are not ambitious, and there is a high risk they will lead to a more complex and ineffective tax system.”
Ryding also expressed strong concerns about the way the G7 is trying to decide what the global corporate tax system should look like.
“The negotiation about new global tax rules belongs at the United Nations, where all countries can participate on an equal footing, rather than at a small rich countries’ club like the G7.”
During the webinar speakers discussed perspectives and demands of movements in the global South for debt cancelation and debt relief, as well as for tax justice to respond to multiple crises and rising inequalities, looking at both cases of national tax agendas and the global tax architecture.
“Rewrite the Rules, Make Taxes Work for Women” is a theme song produced by the Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) for its campaign on tax and gender justice. The song urges listeners to make taxes work for women and to “rewrite the rules that oppress us.” It is inspired by the calls of women that have intensified with the deepening inequalities across the globe amidst the Covid19 pandemic, economic recession, and, climate emergency.
Performed by Meggy Katigbak, the song was launched on 17 March 2021 during a CSW65 (sixty-fifth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women) NGO Virtual Parallel Event called “A Tapestry of Women’s Voices Fighting the Multiple Crises.”
The song seeks to inspire solidarity and action. It is to be shared, sung, amplified. We would appreciate if you let us know how you’ve used the song or the music video.
APMDD’s demands for tax and fiscal justice:
Reduce Unfair Tax Burden on Women
Remove gender bias and discriminatory provisions in tax policies
Recognise, represent, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work
Increase allocation of tax revenues for public services.
Stop corporate tax abuse. Stop illicit financial flows. Establish a democratic, inclusive and transparent Global Tax Body under the auspices of the UN
Lyrics
CHORUS
Rewrite the rules
Make taxes work for women
Rewrite the rules
Make taxes work for women
VERSE I
Society, for centuries
condemned us-brutally fit us
into a mold they shaped for us
one that they always formed for us
Women have struggled, toiled, and fought
We have fought to be seen and won-
We have won the right of suffrage
We still have many fights to win
VERSE II
I grow the food and cook the meal
But have no place at your table
That’s the rule, you say, that’s the rule
But life should not be so cruel
Who set the rules, it’s you, you say
All the care, work, and taxes I pay
From what little that I own
But where does my money go?
VERSE III
Every day, everywhere, we pay
Taxes to eat, to heal, to die
You bury us in taxes
You rest on our belabored backs
Now we shout “tax the rich, not the poor!”
Rewrite the rules to make them right
For justice and equality
Rewrite the rules, we want them right!
BRIDGE
Rewrite the rules that oppress us
Make taxes work for women’s rights!
