Pierre Moscovici pitches tax plan in Ireland

Pierre Moscovici, head of tax at the European Commission, was in Dublin yesterday and said he was open to compromises that would help encourage Ireland to buy into Brussels’ new tax proposal that aims to share out Europe’s corporate tax spoils.

But based on questioning he faced from TDs and from comments made in a speech by Finance Minister Michael Noonan, Mr Moscovici’s central message that no one here should feel threatened by the commission’s latest tax plan failed to play out well.

In the job for just two years, Mr Moscovici was appointed by the head of the commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, to relaunch “a new and improved” version of a proposal for the EU to collect and distribute tax — the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) — which has been long loved by some of the largest EU countries.