In a country like Spain, with a deficit close to 3% of GDP and a debt that breaks all records, it is relevant to know that the tax losses resulting from tax avoidance were... almost 30 billion euros Between 2016 and 2021. And yes, this period includes when we were buying face masks and thousands of people were on furlough. So, we know the total amount of tax avoidance, but not the identity of the multinational corporations responsible. Why don't we know? Because of political pressure from these same companies, the complicity of some politicians, and the acquiescence of others.

Financial engineering, which benefits large corporations, has devastating effects on national treasuries. The Spanish treasury lost over $32 billion in corporate tax revenue between 2016 and 2021 (€27.7 billion at the current exchange rate) due to legal tax techniques employed by multinationals worldwide. Of this sum, approximately 10% corresponded to practices aimed at reducing the tax burden, such as shifting profits to lower-tax jurisdictions, by large US companies like Amazon and others.

The G-7, the group of the world's seven largest economies—made up of Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, with permanent representation from the European Union—announced this Saturday an agreement that exempts large US multinationals from paying the 15% minimum tax agreed upon with the OECD.