British finance minister Rishi Sunak is pushing for the City of London to be exempt from a new global minimum corporation tax system championed by the Group of Seven (G7) economies, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
An official close to the talks said the UK was among those countries pushing "for an exemption on financial services" over fears that global banks with headquarters in London could be affected, the report said.
Sunak raised the issue at the G7 talks in London, the report added, citing people briefed on the talks.
Sunak is expected to make the case that the City of London should be exempt from the plan when talks move to the G-20 next month, the report added.
"Our position is we want financial services companies to be exempt and EU countries are in the same position," the report quoted one British official as saying.
The United States, Britain and other large, rich nations reached a landmark deal last weekend to squeeze more money out of multinational companies as they backed a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15%.
"The global tax agreement backed by G7 finance ministers reforms the global tax system to make it fit for the global digital age, achieving a level playing field for all types of companies", a Treasury spokesperson said.
"The agreement will now be discussed in further detail at the G20 Financial Ministers & Central Bank Governors meeting in July", the spokesperson added.
(Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Leslie Adler and Toby Chopra) ((Akriti.Sharma@thomsonreuters.com;))
