Is Ireland a tax haven?

MEP and TD differ over claims Ireland is a tax haven

Harkin: Ireland is not a tax haven

Independent MEP Marian Harkin has strongly refuted the suggestion that Ireland is a tax haven and urged EU lawmakers to “stop counterproductively singling out individual countries and focus on bringing in real international cooperation”.
Speaking after a Parliament vote on tax havens in Strasbourg, Harkin argued that “Ireland’s tax system is fully transparent and in line with OECD and EU standards. Indeed, Ireland was one of the first countries to sign an agreement with the US to improve international compliance”.
“Furthermore, the OECD has four key indicators for defining a tax haven and none of these criteria apply to Ireland,” she added.
Harkin went on to note that “the OECD has come forward with a document titled ‘Base erosion and profit sharing (BEPS)’ on this issue and the Irish EU Presidency succeeded in getting the Council of EU Finance Ministers to support that initiative last week. It will also be submitted for consideration at the next G8 and G20 meetings”.
“Singling out certain countries who have a low corporation tax and pretending that increasing these rates - or that bringing in a common consolidated corporate tax base - will solve all these problems is wrong - it won’t”.
“While it is a disgrace that some multinationals pay little or no tax, the correct mechanism for dealing with this is the BEPS document from the OECD, and through international cooperation to ensure fair levels of taxation,” the Ireland North & West MEP concluded.

Boyd Barrett: Investigation needed into tax regime

Richard Boyd Barrett TD, Finance spokesperson for People Before Profit/United Left Alliance, rubbished Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore’s denials in the Dail that Ireland is acting as a tax haven to facilitate corporate tax dodging by major multinational companies.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said a Dáil investigation, similar to those which have taken place in the US and Britain, into corporate tax avoidance and the corporate tax regime generally, was urgently required.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said also that Minister Gilmore’s claim that Ireland’s corporation tax regime was “very transparent” was “utterly ridiculous,” when the revelations about one of the Apple subsidiary’s based in Ireland (ASI) showed the company had only paid 0.2% in tax to the Irish state on €22 billion in profits.
Deputy Boyd Barrett further pointed out that Ireland was one of the key centres facilitating the murky and very dangerous world of “shadow banking.” This is the phenomenon where over 6000 “virtual” companies based in the IFSC manage €1.7 trillion in financial assets, almost 11 times the Irish state’s GNP.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said it was not only disgraceful that Ireland was facilitating corporate tax avoidance, speculation and shadow banking on a massive scale but that such a strategy was very dangerous for the Irish economy, making it very vulnerable to further international financial shocks.