Bruton defends corporate tax rate

Ireland will be able to maintain its current corporation tax code in the face of international pressure to prevent multinational corporations avoid paying their fare share of tax, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton said yesterday.

Mr Bruton said Ireland has a transparent low rate that does not have a lot of special deals within it. His comments came days after British parliamentarians castigated Google for paying just £6m (€7.1m) in corporation tax in 2011 despite generating more than £3bn (€3.6bn) a year in revenues in the UK.

“I don’t see this as an attack on our code which I think is robust and fair but there is no doubt that there is a feeling that companies can use the different codes, the way they interact, and there will be changes I am sure in that area,” he told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics yesterday.