Realpolitik prompting Irish tax reforms

Ireland's nominal corporate tax rate is 12.5 per cent, but some multinational companies located here – notably Apple and Google – have managed to reduce their tax bills, and to pay far less. Both have used Irish and US revenue law to minimise their liability. Consequently, their effective rate of tax – what they actually pay – is far less than the nominal or headline rate.

A year ago Apple told a US Senate sub-committee it had paid just 2 per cent tax on its foreign earnings in 2102. In doing so, Apple had fully exploited provisions of the Irish and US tax code. This allowed some multinationals based here to minimise their tax bills by making their intellectual property payments to Irish subsidiaries tax resident offshore – where no tax liability arose.

This revelation prompted some influential US senators to claim that Ireland was a tax haven. A claim the Government quickly rejected, and which the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also dismissed as Ireland meets none of the criteria for tax haven status.

Nevertheless the charge was embarrassing, just when international pressure to reform global corporate taxes was increasing, and with Ireland the focus of attention and scrutiny. The OECD will, later this year, outline its proposed changes to the international tax system.

The Government has moved in advance of the proposed reforms, which do not, however, threaten the12.5 per cent corporate tax rate. Last October it closed the loophole that allowed some Irish registered companies to be “stateless” for tax residency purposes. And it outlined the principles on which Ireland’s international tax strategy is based: maintaining a low corporate tax rate while fully supporting international efforts to tackle harmful tax competition.

The Department of Finance has just announced a public consultation process on Ireland's response to a more challenging international tax environment. As Feargal O'Rourke, head of tax with consultants PwC Ireland, has readily conceded: the "realpolitik" of the global debate on corporation tax means that Ireland's rules now need to change.