2024 closed with a stark reminder that the global tax system is at a breaking point. Despite bold initiatives, the year underscored persistent contradictions:
- The EU’s Balancing Act: While the VAT in the Digital Age Package and green taxation reforms promised modernization, fragmented national interests diluted their potential impact. Are these measures truly transformative, or just incremental changes masking deeper systemic inefficiencies?
- Global Cooperation Stalls: The OECD’s Pillar 1 & 2 reforms floundered under US resistance, while the UN’s tax cooperation framework polarized nations, raising questions about overlapping jurisdictions and political posturing. Are we witnessing the collapse of multilateral tax reform into fragmented regional solutions?
- Transparency vs. Sovereignty: The EU's court rulings, including the Apple case, amplified the debate over tax fairness, but the real challenge remains: how to enforce transparency without eroding national sovereignty or incentivizing unilateralism.
2024 highlighted critical structural challenges in tax governance. Without decisive action to address these issues, 2025 risks becoming another year of limited progress and unrealized reforms.
