Rich Nations Say Draft UN Tax Rights Overhaul Goes Too Far

Several developed economies urged the United Nations Monday to soften an overhaul of global taxing rights under negotiation aimed at creating an international tax treaty.

Norway, Italy, South Korea, and the UK said proposed language that encourages expansion of taxing powers in countries where multinationals operate, known as source-based taxation, at the expense of taxation in countries that companies call home—resident-based taxation—is too lopsided and should be rewritten.

“We need to have a reasonable balance between the taxing rights of resident and source states,” Trude Steinnes Sønvisen, a legal adviser in Norway’s Ministry of Finance, told a UN committee ...