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UN tax convention
For the past century, global tax rules have been set by a small club of rich countries at the OECD, some of which rank as the world’s most harmful tax havens. The outcome is tax rules that fail to stop, and sometimes even encourage, tax injustice.
Establishing a UN tax convention will give all countries a say on global tax rules through a democratic, inclusive intergovernmental body under the UN, and will introduce global tax rules that must adhere to the UN’s human rights principles.
Summary
Positions – where countries stand
Progress is tracked by evaluating countries' stances on the policy.
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Most frequent position by region
Data coverage
215
countries and territories
2023
data collection started
Global median position
Latest event
The Paris Agreement lays the foundation for international action to combat global warming. Carbon taxes become increasingly important as they can play a key role in achieving countries’ pledges under Paris Agreement.
Country positions
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About the policy
UN tax convention
A UN tax convention is an international agreement that could hold countries to equitable, democratic and legally binding standards on corporate tax, financial transparency and tax justice.
UN conventions, like the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against Torture, are international treaties to which countries can sign up and ratify to become bound to the treaty's provisions in international law.
For the past sixty years, global tax rules have been set by the OECD, a small club of rich countries, some of which rank as the world’s most harmful tax havens. This has brought about a global tax system that causes countries around the world to lose nearly half a trillion in tax every year – including those same rich countries themselves. Analysis shows that OECD countries are responsible for enabling three-fourths of these tax losses. While the OECD has acknowledged that current international tax rules are not working, its recent efforts to deliver meaningful reform have failed under pressure from lobbyists in powerful member countries.
Global Progress timeline
1798
Britain instituted the first progressive income tax to finance the growing Napoleonic Wars.
1862
Progressive taxation was first proposed in the US by Abraham Lincoln to finance the Civil War. The US Congress passed the first progressive tax in American history.
1929
Keynesian economics provided the theoretical basis for the popularisation of progressive taxation. After the 1929 crisis, the spread of 'New Deal' redistributive policies laid the basis for the extensive use of progressive taxation.
1980
Reaganomics and the new neoliberal consensus led to a shift in attitude and a gradual erosion of progressive taxation.
1980
International Financial institutions disseminated the tax consensus, a subset of the Washington Consensus, to developing countries. The tax consensus emphasised that taxation should prioritise neutrality over fairness, and that countries should pursue redistributive goals (if any) via expenditure not taxation, signalling a setback in progressive taxation.
2010
The global financial crisis and the extension of austerity policies to the Global North created political forces for a renewed demand for progressive taxation. The tax justice movement grows stronger. Thomas Piketty's book “Capital in the 21st Century” and a renewed intellectual wave bring the issue of progressive taxation to the centre of national and global debate.
2015
The Paris Agreement lays the foundation for international action to combat global warming. Carbon taxes become increasingly important as they can play a key role in achieving countries’ pledges under Paris Agreement.
About the data
Global experts, crowdsourcing power
The data on the Tax Justice Policy Tracker is regularly collected and verified by researchers and experts at the Tax Justice Network and from the wider global tax justice movement.
Crowdsourcing support from the public helps us respond faster to regulatory changes. If you think an answer to a question on the tracker should be updated with new data, please contact us.
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