Nyle Casey 
Tax burdens may deter new business owners from starting small businesses and increases the likelihood of their failure, particularly if tax payments correlate to limited cashflow.
The new OECD tax rules should help capture more profits, particularly from tech firms that use global structures to avoid paying taxes in their home countries – a practice known as profit shifting and base erosion.
Tax burden
Tax burden is one of the biggest barriers facing startups. It can lower profitability and cause cash flow issues, while companies obligated to pay high tax obligations may delay investments, slowing growth. This phenomenon is commonly known as “tax aversion”.
The new OECD reform disrupts century-old norms to make the international tax system more robust against profit shifting by multinationals. It will shift how profits are allocated among countries where firms sell directly to end consumers rather than depending on where their fixed assets reside, making it harder for multinationals to manipulate transfer prices artificially and shift profits away from higher tax nations to lower-tax ones.
The global minimum tax will simplify tax systems and boost revenues, but may create tax haven “pockets.” Furthermore, this tax could undermine existing incentives like deductions and credits that exist today.
Cash flow
Cash flow is one of the key elements for startup success. Startups must manage their funds carefully to avoid running out and making unnecessary purchases that might put their finances at risk. Furthermore, it is vital that they recognize both essential and non-essential expenses.
The global tax reform, projected to raise around $150 billion in additional taxes globally, is an encouraging step in the right direction. It revises how multinationals pay taxes by restricting profit shifting and instituting a minimum tax on profits; furthermore it reduces bias in favor of debt over equity in an efficient manner; it simplifies accounting rules; and permits immediate expensing of capital investments.
But the global tax reform is marred by several drawbacks. It fails to address corporate tax incentives, leaving some nations vulnerable and leading them down an uncertain path toward tax revenue collection. Furthermore, it does not address challenges inherent to revenue administration systems.
Access to finance
Lack of access to funding has long been seen as one of the key barriers to the growth of small businesses. When searching for funding solutions, founders often turn to friends and family in the form of equity or debt financing – although this type of capital may prove hard to secure when your company is unprofitable, or when applying for credit card company loans.
Global tax reforms should aim to eliminate distortions that currently influence business financing decisions, for example through double taxation elimination which levels the playing field for different forms of business while removing barriers to investment and increasing revenue through closing loopholes.
A proposed international agreement on corporate taxes could enhance conditions for high-quality entrepreneurialism. The Biden administration has championed this pact, which would prevent multinationals from pitting countries against each other to reduce tax rates and protect profits by driving down corporate tax rates and protecting profits in a race to drive down corporate tax rates and preserve profits.
Business environment
An ideal business environment for startups is crucial to their success. Providing access to capital and talent as well as offering competitive costs of living and reasonable taxes rates are crucial components of creating businesses with lasting economic impacts that bring benefits back into the economy.
Current corporate tax regime gives established firms an unfair edge, hampering entrepreneurial efforts worldwide. According to A Taxing Problem from Sage Research Institute, newly founded startups pay 10% more in taxes compared to established ones; consistent with hypothesis that higher taxes reduce entrepreneurship pool while impeding entry of high-quality ventures.
The BEPS reforms aim to address this problem head on. Pillar one of these reforms will ensure a more equitable distribution of profits among countries for multinational corporations that include digital entities. Furthermore, it will establish a global minimum effective rate of 15% and offer countries rules to implement top-up taxes when necessary – these guidelines should be finalized by 2023.
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