Financing the United Nations

Abstract

The United Nations is financed by an international tax on its member states which is supposed to be based on capacity to pay. The most practical measure of this capacity is Gross National Product in the most recent year for which data are available, converted to US dollars at market exchange rates. Several alternative tax bases have been proposed but most have theoretical or practical drawbacks. Although the UN's effective tax rate is very low, a case can be made for additional relief for poor countries; the appropriate extent of this is primarily a matter of political choice. The present method of calculation of contributions does not however provide a good measure of current capacity to pay, largely because a succession of ad hoc adjustments over the years have given excessive weight to out-of-date economic data.