‘No’ to minimum corporation tax

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has ruled out the introduction of a minimum effective corporate tax rate.

Currently, firms operating in Ireland pay a corporate tax rate of 12.5% and through reliefs and allowances available, firms’ effective corporate tax rate can be much lower than the 12.5% headline rate.

Recently, it emerged a holding firm for medical device multinational, Boston Scientific, paid an effective corporate tax rate of 4% when it paid tax of $60m on revenues of $1.4bn in 2011. One Abbott Laboratories Irish subsidiary paid no tax on profits of $1.8bn in 2011 as it was not resident here for tax purposes.