Corporate tax rates set to hit zero by mid-century and Ireland gets a red card in new report released Mon 4th Dec

national | economics and finance | press release Monday December 04, 2017 20:25 by ddci - Debt and Development Coalition Ireland maeve at debtireland dot org

DEBT AND DEVELOPMENT COALITION IRELAND PRESS RELEASE

New report analyses developments across Europe and finds:

European governments are leading a race to the bottom which will see average global corporate tax rates hit zero by 2052. A detailed analysis of 17 EU member states and Norway reveals 12 governments have either just cut their corporate tax rate, or are planning to do so in the near future.

Ireland receives a 'red card' in the report, as one of only two countries to receive all red in a traffic light ranking scoring a number of measures identified by civil society as key steps to bring an end to tax dodging.

Half the countries analysed, including Ireland, are found to have harmful tax practices, which can be used by multinational corporations to avoid taxation.

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Corporate tax rates set to hit zero by mid-century , and Ireland gets a red card in new report released Monday 4 December

DEBT AND DEVELOPMENT COALITION IRELAND PRESS RELEASE

New report analyses developments across Europe and finds:

European governments are leading a race to the bottom which will see average global corporate tax rates hit zero by 2052. A detailed analysis of 17 EU member states and Norway reveals 12 governments have either just cut their corporate tax rate, or are planning to do so in the near future.

Ireland receives a 'red card' in the report, as one of only two countries to receive all red in a traffic light ranking scoring a number of measures identified by civil society as key steps to bring an end to tax dodging.

Half the countries analysed, including Ireland, are found to have harmful tax practices, which can be used by multinational corporations to avoid taxation.

Maeve Bateman, Director of Debt and Development Coalition Ireland which prepared the chapter on Ireland for the report, said:

'Despite all the recent tax scandals, and the spotlight placed on Ireland by the Apple State Aid case, it is clear that we still have tax structures that multinationals can use to avoid tax.

Enabling tax avoidance by multinational corporations shifts the burden to some of the most vulnerable people in our societies, as well as globally. Developing countries continue to pay the price for a system they did not create.

Governments should be stopping corporate tax avoidance – not getting rid of corporate tax.'

As big businesses are made to pay less corporate tax, consumers have to pay more in order to fill the gap. As today's report points out, this disproportionately hits the poorest and risks exacerbating inequality rather than reducing it.

The findings are published in ‘Tax Games – the Race to the Bottom: Europe’s role in supporting an unjust global tax system 2017’, the fifth annual report examining the tax and transparency policies of the European institutions, 17 Member States and Norway.

ENDS

The report ‘Tax Games – the Race to the Bottom: Europe’s role in supporting an unjust global tax system 2017’ will be available from 4 December at 00.01 CET at: https://www.debtireland.org/resources/

For more info or to request an interview contact Maeve Bateman at 087 2069017 / maeve@debtireland.org

Notes to Editors:

Specifically, this report finds that:

• The global average tax rate is set to hit zero in 2052. Europe is playing a leading role in this race, and currently seem to be accelerating the pace. An analysis of developments in the EU and Norway shows that 12 governments have either just carried out a new cut in the corporate tax rate, or are planning to do so over the next few years;

• Harmful tax practices are popular in several European countries, and problematic practices such as patent boxes and secret advance tax rulings have been increasing in numbers over the last years. Out of the 18 countries analysed, five received a ‘green light’ on harmful tax practices, while nine countries (Ireland, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK) received a ‘red light’.

• European tax treaties with developing countries remain a key issue of concern. Out of the 18 countries analysed, 12 countries have tax treaty networks that are highly problematic, including Ireland;

• Six countries have pushed ahead in the fight against secret shell companies by introducing public company registers showing the real – beneficial – owners. These are: the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia and Latvia. Meanwhile, secret company ownership is still possible in 12 of the analysed countries, including Ireland, and the UK still offers opportunities for setting up anonymous trusts;

• Ireland, along with the vast majority of the analysed countries, are opposed to the idea of introducing full public country by country reporting, which would allow citizens to see where multinational corporations do business, and how much they pay in taxes. Only Slovenia and Spain openly support full public country by country reporting;

• Ireland is one of 13 out of 18 countries are openly against the proposal of establishing an intergovernmental UN tax body to address the problems in the global tax system, while ensuring that developing countries participate on a truly equal footing. Not a single European government has spoken out in favour;

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Maeve Bateman
Director

Debt and Development Coalition Ireland,
Spade Enterprise Centre,
North King St,
Dublin 7

Tel: +353 1 6174835
8 maeve@debtireland.org