‘No need for further unilateral corporate tax change’

There is no need for the Irish Government to introduce any further changes to the corporate tax system on a unilateral basis following the publication of the OECD’s draft paper on base erosion and profit-shifting (BEPS), according to Padraig Cronin, head of tax & legal services, at Deloitte Ireland.

“There is no need for Ireland to take unilateral action as a result of the papers issued by the OECD yesterday. The areas of interest from an Irish point of view remain under discussion and will not be finalised until September 2015 at the earliest. We need to remain vigilant and ensure we remain competitive as this process continues to evolve,” he said.

Ireland’s corporate tax regime has been the subject of huge international attention over the past couple of years. The US Senate hearings into the tax affairs of Apple found the tech giant had an effective tax rate of 2%, which was facilitated in no small part by a complex tax mechanism known as the ‘double Irish’.