New global corporate tax regime will directly affect Ireland for years to come

Many Irish people might feel that this flurry of attention on an OECD project about the taxation of companies is irrelevant in the run-up to the budget on October 13.

At one extreme, people could say it doesn’t really matter, who pays attention to OECD reports anyway? At the other extreme it will be argued that this so-called base erosion and profit-shifting (BEPS) project is merely a smokescreen to hide political decisions.

I don’t think either view is correct.