The Unhelpful Myth of Tax Certainty

Abstract

One key component of the OECD’s Pillar One proposal to reallocate taxing rights from producer to consumer nations is the promise that businesses and governments affected by this change will be able to achieve something called “tax certainty”. But what exactly is “tax certainty”? In this Talking Points piece, Peter A. Barnes looks at whether it is possible to achieve certainty in any aspect of business, let alone in the complex world of international taxation, and suggests a more productive way forward.