Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 2 July 2015
Public Accounts Committee
2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15: Local Property Tax
Chapter 16: Taxation of Rental Income
2014 Account of the Revenue Commissioners
10:00 am
Mr. Niall Cody:
Absolutely, yes. That intellectual property was not developed in Ireland. This goes to the heart of the base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, issue, and the international developments in this regard. We are being challenged on various issues and the solution to some of these requires international developments. There is a corporation tax system that is based on the trading of physical goods, but there is a new, modern digital economy. This is recognised in all countries. The challenge will be to get agreement when the OECD finishes with its 15 reports at the end of this year. Everybody might be against certain aspects and it will be a challenge to get international agreement because national interests will sometimes diverge, and there is a political impact on the United States. I think I said when I was here in March that we are devoting fairly significant resources to our international tax and to working with the Department of Finance at OECD and EU level on all aspects of the international debate on corporation tax. It is significantly complex but it is of huge importance to this country.