Finding a New Enforcer: Combatting International Corporate Tax Avoidance With Multinational Organizations

By: Ryan McNicholas

The modern world economy has made it easier than ever for

large multinational corporations to avoid paying taxes. As

corporate tax rates are largely the domain of individual nations,

sophisticated companies are incentivized to take advantage of

differences in national taxation to minimize their own tax

burden. This avoidance creates significant negative effects for

impacted countries, which lose out on a significant source of

government revenue. As public and political awareness of the

scale of global tax evasion and avoidance has increased, several

multinational organizations have set out to combat the problem

with mixed results.

This Note aims to evaluate the shortcomings of the current

international corporate tax regime. By examining the failures of

the current established framework and assessing how individual

nations are able to utilize different strategies to facilitate tax

avoidance, it aims to illuminate how new multinational actors in

the space may prove to be more empowered to tackle the issue on

behalf of individually affected nations.