It’s time for Corporate Earth to pay up. Meeting in person for the first time since the pandemic begun, finance ministers of seven of the planet’s richest big nations struck a common-sense deal on a tax issue that has divided them for years. The result is a step toward improving global equity, and perhaps a prelude to resolving knottier, multilateral problems. Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States whose revenues are being eroded by tax havens, would be top beneficiaries of Saturday’s agreement to impose a 15% minimum tax on the profits of large companies. The proceeds will help replenish coffers hit by Covid-19: EU Tax Observatory estimates an annual uplift of about $50 billion for America alone. A kicker allows governments to levy “the largest most profitable” companies at source regardless of whether they maintain a physical presence in a country. That aims at replacing taxes on digital service revenues of the likes of Google-owner Alphabet (GOOGL.O) that have been introduced in Europe and beyond by states frustrated by the lack of a global tax policy appropriate for a digital age. Ensnaring tech giants will require some creative definitions, however. Take Amazon (AMZN.O). Its pre-tax profit during the March quarter was $10.3 billion on $109 billion of net sales, implying a margin below the discussed 10% threshold beyond which other countries will gain taxing rights. It will be a big lift getting a deal across the finishing line. U.S. President Joe Biden will burn political capital winning over Congress; the minimum tax agreed is lower than the 21% he proposed. In the wider Group of 20 nations meeting next month, European Union low-tax members like Ireland and Hungary might push for exemptions. Developing countries whose statutory rates are higher could baulk. Even once an agreement is done, tax havens can dream up new wheezes to attract multinationals. Even so, companies are listening to the mood music: Facebook (FB.O) expects to pay more money in more countries. But unity on tax lends credibility to achieving other ambitious goals, principally in combatting climate change. The Group of Seven supports forcing mandatory disclosures on climate-related risks and sees merit in creating a global reporting standard. Fixing advanced-nation policies on carbon border adjustments without unduly punishing emerging markets like China and India looks particularly fraught. Agreeing on tax is a good first step. Follow @ugalani on Twitter CONTEXT NEWS - The Group of Seven major industrial countries reached a deal on June 5 to back a minimum 15% global tax rate that would reduce the incentive for multinational companies to shift profits to tax havens. - The group also agreed to force multinationals to pay taxes where they operate regardless of whether they have physical presence; awarding so-called market countries taxing rights on “at least 20% of profit exceeding a 10% margin for the largest and most profitable multinational enterprises”. Key details on the definitions remain to be negotiated. - European countries will scrap existing digital services taxes as the new global rules go into effect, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, noting she expected Amazon and Facebook would be covered under the new deal “by almost any definition”. - Separately, the G7 said it supported moving to mandatory climate-related disclosures. The G7 said these should be made according to existing recommendations by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. - United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada are members of the G7.