EP 33: Nova trilogia - A Internacionalização da Tributação e dos seus Discursos

Part 3: The New Great Powers and the Erosion of the Tax Base In the next episode of ESTB Explains, we conclude the trilogy on the internationalization of taxation and its discourses by addressing one of the most important transformations in the contemporary international tax field: the rise of new great powers and the reformulation of international discourse based on the phenomenon of tax base erosion. If, in the previous episode, the focus was on the consolidation of the OECD as the main forum for international tax debate and the construction of a new language of cooperation centered on the fight against harmful tax competition, now the question shifts once again: what happens when the power order that sustained this discourse begins to change? The episode starts from the premise that the third phase of international tax discourse cannot be understood merely as a technical deepening of the previous agenda. What is at stake is something deeper: the entry of new central actors into the field, the need to reconstruct the international discourse on less idealized bases, and the OECD's attempt to preserve its centrality in a more plural and unstable power environment. The episode is structured in three movements: 🔹 The rise of new great powers — the weakening of the field's former homogeneity, the pressure exerted by actors who did not participate in the historical construction of the international tax discourse, and the challenge of producing a language with universalist pretensions in a context of new power relations; 🔹 The BEPS Project and the construction of a new tax universalism — the opportunity seized by the OECD to incorporate new participants, preserve its image of technical excellence, and, at the same time, reconstruct the international discourse based on minimum commitments, best practices, and new forms of legitimation, such as the Inclusive Framework; 🔹 The tension between technique and politics in the current debate — the aesthetic shift in the international tax discourse, the partial abandonment of old idealized categories, the rapprochement between international tax law and international law, and the impacts of the digitalization of the economy on the OECD's legitimacy as the technical guardian of the field. In the end, the question that remains is this: Will the OECD be able to continue playing the role of the main technical guardian of international tax discourse—or will the growing visibility of the political dimension of taxation and the dissatisfaction of the new major powers shift this debate to other forums, such as the UN? 🎓 A fundamental episode for those who wish to understand that the BEPS Project was not just a technical package of measures against international tax planning, but the expression of a new phase in the field, marked by the reorganization of power relations, the reconstruction of tax universalism, and the reopening of the political problem at the center of the international debate. #ESTBExplains #TaxLaw #InternationalTaxLaw #BEPS #OECD #UN #BaseErosion #InclusiveFramework #DigitalEconomy #ESTB