UK's Rishi Sunak lines up corporation tax deal at G7 finance meeting

Finance chief wants tech giants to be taxed fairly

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak will be among the G7 finance ministers meeting in London. Reuters

The UK's Chancellor wants a new deal with the US that would fairly tax major corporations such as Amazon, Google and Facebook.

Washington has proposed a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15 per cent, which is well below G7 levels, but above those in countries including Ireland.

But Britain is concerned the US plan does not go far enough.

"We need them to understand why fair taxation of tech companies is important to us," Rishi Sunak told the Mail on Sunday ahead of a two-day meeting of G7 finance ministers in London, beginning on Friday.

"There's a deal to be had, so I'm urging the US – and all of the G7 – to come to the table next week and get it done.

"Negotiations are going well ... but it has to be the right deal for Britain and that's what this week's negotiations will be about."

He said major corporations such as Facebook wanted clarity on the issue.

Mr Sunak said he wanted to "level the playing field for British high streets", with Britain looking at a separate online sales tax.

"Fundamentally, the global tax system isn't working ... large multinational companies, particularly digital companies, are able by the nature of their businesses not to pay the right tax in the right places. And that's not fair," he said.

"That's what we're fighting hard to fix in these negotiations. If everyone works hard over the next few days and weeks, I'm confident that we can find a good place."