Hungarian FM to discuss global minimum tax with US politicians, economic players

Hungary’s minister for foreign affairs and trade is meeting US senators and congressmen as well as the representatives of US companies in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, to discuss threats arising from a global minimum tax for corporations.

Péter Szijjártó will also address a business forum of Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative advocacy group, and talk about Hungarian economic policy and the global minimum tax, the ministry said.

Hungary, the country with the lowest corporate tax rate in Europe and the third lowest in the world, sees a global minimum tax for corporations as extremely harmful and dangerous, the ministry quoted Szijjártó as saying. Tax burdens for companies operating in Hungary would double overnight, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs, “reducing Hungary to the state of affairs in 2010, when we had 1 million fewer jobs than now,” he said.

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“We do not want to risk Hungarians’ jobs, so we will not agree to introducing the global minimum tax in Europe,” he said.

The Republican party, which, he said, was expected to win the majority in the US Congress at the mid-term elections in the autumn, also rejected the measure as it risked jobs and harmed competitiveness. Szijjártó is scheduled to meet representatives of ten US companies, two US senators and five congressmen.