Ireland is not a tax haven – Dept of Finance
Ireland does not meet any internationally recognised standard of being a tax haven, according to a statement from the Department of Finance.
The department is reacting to a report in today’s Irish Independent detailing new figures which show that US mulitnational companies based in Ireland, made €74 billion in profits in 2017.
This represents a third of the total profits made by US multinationals in Europe that year.
The figures are contained in the US government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis annual report.
It prompted a tweet from Professor Gabriel Zucman of University of California, Berkeley, who wrote, “Ireland remains the #1 tax haven”.
A spokesperson for the Department of Finance, said, “In an era of declining tax rates, we have consistently maintained our 12.5% rate of Corporation tax to encourage real and substantive investment in the economy. It is applied transparently to domestic and international companies with real substantive operations in Ireland.”
The spokesperson said the corporation tax rate provides a stable economic environment which ensures employment for citizens and provides significant levels of taxation which provide for the needs of Irish citizens.
“The internationally-accepted definition of a tax haven considers rate, secrecy and substance, and by that definition Ireland is not and never has been a tax haven. A rigorous peer review showed that the country is fully compliant in all aspects of exchange of information and transparency,” the spokesperson said.
Ireland has three corporate tax rates, 12.5% on trading income, 25% for investment income and a 33% rate for capital gains.
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