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THE HEAD OF the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) tax policy unit has said that Ireland is not a tax haven and that the country’s low corporation tax rate is not a problem.
Pascal Saint Amans, the director of the OCED’s centre for tax policy and administration, told an Oireachtas Committee today that Ireland does not meet any of the organisation’s critera to be defined as a tax haven – that there is no taxes, no transparency and no exchange of information.
“Clearly Ireland does not fall at all in this category,” he told the Oireachtas Finance sub-committee saying that “Ireland is not a tax haven”.
He said that the country was at the forefront of fighting tax evasion and said Ireland was “very far from the definition of the tax haven”.
The committee is examining global taxation structures in light of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. BEPS aims to close tax loopholes that allow multinational companies to avoid paying their fair share of tax.
A recent action plan has set out 15 actions to tackle evasion including preventing abuse of tax structures in different jurisdictions and greater sharing of information among countries.
Ireland was at the centre of controversy earlier this year when US Senate committee claimed the country operated as a tax haven for multinationals like Apple.
The government has continuously denied this as well as claims that Apple negotiated an effective two per cent tax rate with the Irish government.
Saint Amans said that Ireland’s corporation tax rate of 12.5 per cent – a bone of contention for some European countries is “not a problem in the international environment as is”.
He said that the issue of multinationals not paying enough tax was a result of discrepancies in tax systems.
“The gaps between tax sovereignties have resulted in lowering effective tax rates of companies,” he said expressing confidence that recently agreement of the G20 countries to exchange tax information would help to counter this.
Saint Amans said that the so-called double Irish arrangement, which allows companies to lower their corporate tax liability, was not a result of Irish legislation alone but “the result of the articulation of different pieces of both domestic legislation and international tax law”.
He said Ireland could not address and fix this practice on its own and that it would require international cooperation.
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definately not a tax haven for the workers!
Income tax in the UK is on a par with ireland. Prsi is 3 times higher in the UK. My council tax is £2600 a year. Water rates over £700. Congestion charge in London £10 a day. Bus and Rail costs are alot higher than ireland. Salaries in the UK are alot less than in Ireland. But hey Tesco is about 15% cheaper in the UK. You had it very good for a very long time.
fair point Matt..but are you forking out for gp service, refuse services,schoolbooks, creches, the list goes on and on
Maybe I’m wrong but I dont think you can compare like for like.
We do pay for those services too. The money i pay in National insurance pays for GP visits. Ive never visited a GP or hospital in 20 years. I would be better off paying for private medical insurance and pay alot less in PRSI each year if i had a choice. My refuse collection comes out of my council tax. £2600 a year. Creche fees £800-£1200 a month per child.
at least you get a return
prsi at scource ..then pay 50-60 to see a gp ,then pay for a prescription
prsi at scource…pay 120 per night for hospital
household tax..then pay 350 -500 for refuse
just saying its not like for like!
and you also hit the high tax band at a lot lower level than the uk
But we also have the best paid “leaders” so things cant be too bad.
The majority of the population in Ireland have a medical or GP card. So free visits for them. As i said i haven’t used the NHS in 20 years. I would be better off paying medical insurance. Paying £2600/€3100 a year for my bins to be collected is a killer. I recycle most of my refuse. That’s free.
fair enough, but we have to pay extra
from after taxed income, services which are covered by your taxed income
our boys in the dail must be rubbing their hands with glee whem they see your council tax bill ,
coming to a letter box near all of us soon!
I know. Id say they are. I hate paying council tax. It goes up every year.
cheers Matt
good to talk,wish you 20 more yrs good health:-).
”The majority of the population in Ireland have a medical or GP card”
I doubt that is true . to qualify for a medical card for 65-70 Yo – income must be below €10500 and your coincil tax covers other items – which u may or may not use .
eg ”police, fire, recycling, refuse collection and removal, schools, leisure centres, park and ride schemes, parks and open spaces, street cleaning, subsidising of public transport, tourism, museums, social housing grants, housing and council tax benefits, environmental health and food safety in pubs”
most items in Ireland eg electronic are way dearer than in UK – also may services eg dental
I don’t have a medical card nor will qualify for one, private health insurance for me, which now is so expensive but am happy I have it now after an experience from last year.
the government pride themselves on being a low income tax nation (????) but it’s the stealth taxes as the both of you have mentioned, bins, water, property etc, etc.
am at the stage where I want to pay higher taxes at source like Sweden, Denmark et al and get actual proper public service!
or am I living in a dream world????
Jim i could give you a breakdown of my council tax bill but i wont bore you. Half the things you say is not on the list. Over 2 million people in ireland have a medical or GP card.
OK – ”Over 2 million people in ireland have a medical or GP card.”
I found this hard to believe but true – which means that a huge % of people are on very low incomes as €184 / week is threshold for single people – and €201 for a couple – hardly a wonderful reflection on the debris of the Celtic tiger
If a child had say autism, parents get the medical card too regardless of income…. Strange but true
If nothing else, his name is bloody fantastic.
Are there the Saint Amans from below Shrule ?
Sorry Pascal , Irieland is a Tax haven , of course you are not going to admit that are you ,
tell me the profit and the tax the follow companies made/paid in ireland
Google 2011 Profit €9bn , tax paid €8m or 0.0888888% (due to explotation of legal tax loopholes allowing it to channel profit from ireland to Bermuda via Holland .
IBM
Apple $74bn , tax paid , just 2 %
Intel
Tesco’s
Boston Sicentific Profit €1.4bn , tax paid €60m or 4%
etc etc etc
have a look at the link below
http://gulfnews.com/business/general/apple-controversy-lays-bare-complex-irish-tax-web-1.1211469
,
but as its ireland its typical , a lot of RTE top earners channel their wages via production companies etc , thus allowing them to pay tax at lower rates .
Good.
Sean, did Google make €9bn in Ireland last year, probably not, more likely they funneled profits from other countries. You can’t have it both way I’m afraid.
That’s an encouraging headline. Hopefully that will attract more multinationals to come and create jobs here.
Wouldn’t hurt if we dropped the corp’ tax further dependent on the amount of jobs a company created.
Now there’s a true job creation incentive.
So the smaller the company the harder we make it for them to succeed? Ya that sounds like a great way to create indigenous entrepreneurship.
I agree with Adam, a lot of banks located here employed very few people but benefited greatly from low corp tax.
We should give incentive for companies that actually employ people not just launder profits.
It looks like Pascal missed the article from Tom McDonnell on the Journal earlier this week.
“Nor does Ireland meet each of the OECD criteria for a tax haven. Then again when even the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands don’t officially count as uncooperative tax havens definitions like those of the OECD cease to have meaning as an analytical tool.”
http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/tax-haven-ireland-985183-Jul2013/
Ireland SHOULD be a tax haven. We need the capital, jobs and prosperity.
I’m tired of this tax haven rubbish. Why can’t we all just stop trying to tax success. Cut spending on frivolous stuff for once
Outside of spending in relation to Government what would you classify as frivolous?
Hats for sheep is pretty frivolous
Unless the chic, stylish hats!
All I hear these days is “tax more, fair share, tax more” which appropriates more money to A USELESS BUNCH OF POLITICIANS. Do we not see that if we want less idiots in government we need to REDUCE the amount of money and power we give them? And the more you tax the rich, the more of a reason they lobby for loopholes?!?!
How about the ridiculous amount of money we spent on Terminal 2 in Dublin, that we didn’t actually need.
How about the ridiculous amount of money we charge to put cars on the road. Rich people don’t care how much it is, but people struggling that have no option and are hit the hardest.
We BAILED OUT BANKS THAT SHOULD HAVE FAILED. How is this right? Anyone know what a moral hazard is?
The amount of income we take from people for trying to do a days work, forcefully taking money from one person WHO EARNED IT and gave it to another person who has no intention of working a day in their lives.
The HSE is a joke and what do we do? We throw more money at it. Public sector unions are sucking what’s left of this country dry. I won’t even start on what inflation is doing to the poor people.
That’s what governments count as success, throw more money at problems at the hope that it’ll make it better.
Someone tell me I’m wrong; go on I dare ya.
“Fair share” my bo***x. Ireland is getting close to a socialist state. 0 economic freedom.
No wonder everyone is gone.
Deal with it.
Well said Michael, the vested interests will hate it though.
Nicely put @michael.
@innovative Steve
Unless of course the sheep just had their hair/wool straightened in which case a hat would be essential
Ok, if u say so…….No matter what this plonker says, Ireland is quite clearly a tax haven for unbridled corporate monsters and their majority shareholders.
I LOL’d when I read that headline. ;)
how often do people give evidence to committees via video link?
have your say