EU Explores Using Global Tax Deal Revenue From Multinationals to Fund Its Next Budget

The European Commission is exploring whether revenue from a global tax agreement on multinational companies can be used to finance the European Union's next seven-year budget, according to four EU diplomats with knowledge of the proceedings.

European Council President António Costa is pushing national capitals to agree to new EU-wide levies to reduce national contributions to the bloc's budget. According to the latest proposal from earlier this month, the budget is worth €1.82 trillion.

Costa, who is brokering the budget talks, is pressing leaders to reach a budget deal among themselves by the end of the year — before elections in Poland, France and Italy threaten to derail the negotiations.

After more than a year of haggling, EU governments are still at odds over five proposed new taxes. The Commission estimates those taxes would generate €65 billion per year. These taxes are known as the EU's own resources.

Among the options, a corporate tax known as CORE has emerged as the most unpopular option. It charges a lump sum on the revenues of companies exceeding €100 million. It is particularly toxic in Germany.

According to two of the diplomats, French President Emmanuel Macron supported funnelling part of the tax on multinationals to the EU budget during a leaders' summit in October. Supporters argue that this idea could garner more political support than CORE, as it targets companies' profits as opposed to their revenue.

Pascal Saint-Amans, a former OECD official and one of the architects of the global tax arrangement, said the corporate income tax is about taxing companies based on their profitability. CORE is not about that; CORE is about taking a toll blindly.

Under the OECD tax deal from 2021, EU countries are compelled to levy a 15 percent minimum corporate tax on large multinationals with an annual turnover exceeding €750 million. The United States secured an exemption from the rules, as it introduced a national tax arrangement that was deemed equivalent to the OECD framework. The end goal is to prevent countries from competing to offer lower and lower corporate tax rates to attract large multinationals.

Historically, many foreign multinationals operating across the EU, such as Apple and Google, have set their headquarters in Ireland because of its low taxes and light-touch regulation. To tackle this phenomenon, the OECD deal compels countries undercutting the 15 percent rate to levy a 'top-up tax' on large foreign companies. Currently, the revenue is collected by national governments. However, according to the diplomats, European capitals could funnel part of these proceeds to the bloc's budget.

This could hit countries such as Ireland and the Netherlands, which charge low corporate rates and collect large sums from the top-up tax. According to Bloomberg, the Dutch government alone collected €449 million in 2026 from returns related to the global minimum tax.

Saint-Amans defended the potential new own resource on the grounds that the multinationals' activities are taking place in Ireland, but are about managing the EU markets. He added that this is how it could make sense to visualise the top-up taxes.

Costa's team and the Commission are looking into this option ahead of bilateral discussions with EU countries starting next week. Costa will test the waters with governments before proposing new budget figures and EU taxes ahead of a leaders' summit on November 26 and 27.