U.S. multinational corporations will not have to pay additional corporate taxes overseas under a recently finalized deal.
The OECD announced on Monday that nearly 150 countries have agreed to the 2021-originated plan, which aims to prevent large global companies from shifting profits to low-tax nations regardless of where they operate worldwide.
The revised version exempts large U.S.-based multinational corporations from the 15% global minimum tax, following negotiations between President Donald Trump’s administration and other Group of Seven (G7) wealthy nations.
OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said in a statement that the agreement is a “landmark decision in international tax cooperation” and “enhances tax certainty, reduces complexity, and protects tax bases.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the agreement “a historic victory in preserving U.S. sovereignty and protecting American workers and businesses from extraterritorial overreach.”
The latest version of the deal weakens the landmark 2021 agreement that set a 15% global minimum corporate tax. The original idea was to stop multinational corporations—including and —from using accounting and legal maneuvers to shift earnings to low- or no-tax havens.
Those havens are typically places like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, where the companies conduct little or no actual business.
Former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was of the 2021 OECD global tax deal and made the one of her top priorities. The plan was widely criticized by congressional Republicans, who argued it would make the U.S. less competitive in the global economy.
The renegotiated the deal in June after congressional Republicans rolled back a from that would have allowed the federal government to impose taxes on foreign-owned companies and investors from countries judged to charge U.S. companies “unfair foreign taxes.”
Tax transparency groups have criticized the amended OECD plan.
“This deal risks nearly a decade of global progress on corporate taxation only to allow the largest, most profitable American companies to keep parking profits in tax havens,” said Zorka Milin, policy director at the FACT Coalition, a tax transparency nonprofit.
Tax watchdogs argue the minimum tax was intended to halt an international race to the bottom in corporate taxation that has led multinational businesses to book their profits in low-tax countries.
Congressional Republicans applauded the finalized deal. Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Missouri) said in a joint statement: “Today marks another significant milestone in putting America First and unwinding the Biden Administration’s unilateral global tax surrender.”