Corporate taxes: 'We need to be careful on the tax rate' to keep businesses competitive, EY CEO says

Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous spoke with Carmine Di Sibio, EY Global Chairman & CEO about corporate tax rates and the need for businesses to stay competitive.

Video transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I want to switch the focus to what's happening in Washington, DC right now, because a couple of days ago, President Biden admitted he doesn't have the votes he needs to raise the corporate tax rate to pay for his infrastructure spending bill. Lawmakers now looking at a billionaire's tax, and I know when you and I spoke earlier in the year, you said that raising corporate taxes would force companies out of the US. What would your message be to lawmakers right now with regards to raising taxes?

CARMINE DI SIBIO: Yeah, so this is something that, obviously, is very, very sensitive, and it's very sensitive with our clients. We have to be competitive on the world stage when it comes to tax rates. And, you know, there is some room, but, you know, right now, the global deal on 15% of global minimum tax is a fair deal. But that-- all the countries have to sign up to that, and the US has to sign up to that as well.

There are a lot of details behind it. But I do think, you know, for us to be competitive, we have to have competitive tax rates. And if we don't, we are going to see what we saw 10, 15 years ago. Companies will start moving their headquarters to lower tax rate jurisdictions. I mean, that's going to be the fallout. So it has to happen, Alexis. There are different ways in which the government can generate revenue. But right now, companies are creating many jobs, jobs in the US, jobs everywhere. And we need to be careful on the tax rate.