I was heartened by this part: "All 20 G-20 countries joined in signing the OECD deal, indicating broad agreement, at least with the outlines. The G-20 could give its final blessing at a summit Oct. 30-31 in Rome."

I suspect that this really is a norms thing-- while companies would rather not pay taxes, they probably mostly don't want to be seen as chumps. If the new norm is less tax avoidance, I bet that many companies will cut out the ludicrous levels of profit shifting, at least for a while.

Add a provision for the International Tax Enforcement Flotilla, and we're golden.

I was heartened by this part: "All 20 G-20 countries joined in signing the OECD deal, indicating broad agreement, at least with the outlines. The G-20 could give its final blessing at a summit Oct. 30-31 in Rome."

Not among these countries - the ones that are the real problem*, like Ireland.

* I mean, the UK is hardly blameless here in that it has only halfheartedly put pressure on its dependencies, which are among the biggest tax havens and corporate secrecy black holes in the world. But the point still stands, in that the UK signing up to these principles won't affect that.

The UK is also pushing to exclude financial services from being subjected to these rules, because of course they are.