Revision of draft OECD tax reform plan positive – Martin
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said the revision of the text of a draft OECD global corporate tax rate reform plan is a positive step.
Diplomatic efforts are set to continue ahead of an expected final Irish Government decision tomorrow.
An updated draft of the tax deal yesterday dropped “at least” from a proposed minimum global corporate tax rate of “at least 15%”, clearing a major hurdle for Ireland to sign up to the deal.
Minister For Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said he is hopeful that Ireland can support the new global tax agreement and a final text should be made available to Government later this evening for consideration.
Minister Coveney said that his expectation is that the OECD meeting on Friday will finalise a new global tax agreement.
“Ireland does not want to be isolated in this space, but we want to ensure that our view is properly heard,” Mr Coveney said.
The Minister said that Ireland has asked for reasonable changes that provide as much certainty as possible going forward in this space.
Meanwhile the President of the Irish Tax Institute, Karen Frawley, said that global companies operating in Ireland would welcome a degree of certainty on global tax rules.
Ms Frawley, who is also an international tax partner with Deloitte, told Morning Ireland that the general uncertainty about where global tax rules are going is unhelpful for business and certainty would help with planning.
She said that the 12.5% corporation tax rate has certainly been hugely beneficial for Ireland and has been one factor for companies seeking to set up operations in Ireland.
She said there has been a mixed reaction to date and that “people waiting to see where the rules go”
“A lot of the underlying detail of the OECD rules are yet to be worked out and the devil can be in the detail,” she added.
In tandem with the OECD review, she said there is a “very complicated and detailed” reform of the US tax system underway.
Currently, US multinationals must pay a top-up tax on global profits on income taxed abroad and a lot of Irish profits fall into that system
“In some ways what happens in the US will have more of an impact in Ireland than some of the OECD proposals,” Ms Frawley said.
Article Source – Revision of draft OECD tax reform plan positive – Martin – RTE
