The Treasury Department is mounting a defense of last year’s decision to exempt US companies from a global minimum tax ahead of this week’s G7 meeting.

After The New York Times reported that the decision had so far enabled US companies to avoid some $40 billion in taxes, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs Rebecca Burch pushed back Saturday night by telling the New York State Bar Association that “articles on financial reporting make conclusions that do not represent the full picture,” according to excerpts shared with Semafor.

The decision was “a coexistence mechanism, not repeal of a US obligation,” since “Congress never enacted” the tax, Burch added. “The rationale … was not simply ‘we want havens,’ the issues were US sovereignty, compliance burden and foreign [tax] application to US-parented groups already subject to US minimum-tax systems.”