Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 68:

In page 60, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:
“39. The Minister shall, within three months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the effective rate of tax charged to domestic businesses in this state and separately to multinational corporations, and analyse the impact of this Finance Act with regards to lowering the effective tax rate or increasing it.”.

Amendment No. 68 calls for a report to be prepared and laid before Dáil Éireann within three months of the passage of the Bill on the effective rate of tax charged to domestic businesses in the State and, separately, to multinational corporations, including analysis of the impact of the Finance Act with regard to the lowering or increasing of the effective tax rate. We had a discussion, which the Minister of State attended, about the Irish incorporated non-resident change to the Finance (No. 2) Bill. It was a change I welcomed as I had articulated the argument on many occasions and produced legislation to give effect to it. We must take further steps. While I acknowledge completely that certain aspects of multinational corporation tax and the ability of such companies to write down their effective rate of tax by using either loopholes in tax codes in this country or in other jurisdictions or by means of shifting profits from this jurisdiction to other jurisdictions is outside of our hands to a certain degree, there are issues we can address in domestic law to deal with the matter. One measure is the acceptance of the Irish incorporated non-resident tax and the closing of the loophole for businesses that are stateless.

The next step we must take is to look at the effective rate of tax charged on domestic businesses and multinationals and the impact of the Bill on them. We have had responses from the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, and other Ministers that the effective tax rate is 11.9%. I am sure he is aware, as I am, that the report that investigated the profits and concluded the rate was 11.9% looked at generic companies across the various jurisdictions. It was a ceramic company that does not export. I am sure there are many small and medium enterprises, especially non-international trading ones, that pay a lot more than 11.9%, but the reality is that for the companies we are talking about, they are not in the same category as the one investigated in the report that gave rise to there being an 11.9% tax rate. I refer to major multinational corporations that have elaborate tax structures in this jurisdiction and elsewhere. There should be nothing to fear in the provision of a report on the effective rate of tax charged on domestic businesses and the impact of the Finance (No. 2) Bill on them. I commend the amendment to the committee.