Tim McDonald, senior vice president of global taxes at Procter & Gamble, is one of the most respected tax professionals in US business today. He wields considerable influence as chairperson of the taxation committee at the US Council for International Business.
McDonald brings formidable economic knowledge and in-house expertise to discussions with US and OECD policymakers. He can speak up for businesses precisely because he knows the inner workings of tax departments so well.
It wasn’t so surprising when McDonald took over from Will Morris, deputy leader of global tax at PwC, in 2021. He may warn against some of the more radical proposals in international reform, but he favours change for the sake of stopping tax nationalism in its tracks.
By ‘tax nationalism’, McDonald means the rise of the digital services tax and other attempts to extend national taxing rights to multinational companies. Despite the difficulty of pillars one and two approved, McDonald can see a positive outcome where the international system would be stabilised.
However, this means the arm’s-length principle has to survive in some form. There are more difficulties in settling the details of pillar one before it can be implemented. But McDonald is one voice the OECD would be foolish to ignore.
