Brian Hayes: ECON recommendations on CCCTB would 'destroy Irish corporate tax revenue'

Recommendations for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) were voted on this afternoon by the European Parliament's Economic Affairs Committee.

Brian Hayes MEP has warned that if the recommendations were adopted by the European Council it would cause significant damage to Irish corporation tax revenue.

Mr Hayes claims that the report adds to the growing political pressure to harmonise corporate tax policy in the EU saying that as it stands, it "would destroy Irish corporate tax revenues".

IBEC has estimated that it could potentially erode Ireland's corporate tax base by up to 50%.

Mr Hayes voted against the recommendations as they go further than the original Commission proposal and would impose a new digital tax.

Mr Hayes has said that the ECON recommendations advocate applying the CCCTB to companies with an annual turnover of over €750 million initially but after seven years it would apply to all companies.

"We cannot allow a situation where CCCTB applies to all Irish companies, big and small," said Mr Hayes.

"The original intention of the file was to target multinational companies. The proposal to apply a new digital tax to CCCTB is very problematic to Ireland as we depend heavily on tax revenue from digital companies."

According to Mr Hayes, a country-by-country impact assessment has not been conducted.

"It would be madness to allow half our corporate tax revenues to be shifted to larger Member States.

"Also, seven national parliaments, including the Dáil, issued objections to CCCTB because of tax sovereignty issues. Their concerns have not been addressed by either the Commission or European Parliament," said Mr Hayes.

Digital Desk