Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 12 November 2019

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Ex Post Budget Scrutiny: Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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There are two different pillars of the potential OECD framework. Pillar 1 relates to taxing where value is created and pillar 2 refers to the requirement for a global minimum effective tax rate. The Deputy referred to our responsibility and Ireland has not received the recognition it has merited for the scale of change we have made to our tax code. Looking forward, I am clear that to continue to be legitimate in using corporate tax policy to make ourselves competitive, we need to be inside an OECD framework. I favour pillar 1 as the way we can craft a potential landing zone that manages the different priorities we have.

Within the OECD we depend on influence and negotiation. Many big countries within the OECD will be looking to ensure their national interests are protected. I do not have a rate in mind. If a rate is created, it is work for the OECD to do. It is not my place to speculate on what the figure could be, given that I believe the bedding in of that principle could present a challenge for Ireland. I do not believe we are likely to face a revenue gain as a result of such a change.

I believe we will see corporation tax receipts increase again this year as I indicated in my statement to the committee. It is very likely that they will increase again next year. I believe our corporation tax receipts will plateau and then decline at some point. That could be for any one of a number of reasons, but I will highlight three. First, the phase of corporate profitability many large companies are going through could begin to change in the future. The second is the effect of OECD measures on our share of global tax profits. The third is that we could see other countries begin to adopt more competitive attitudes towards corporation tax rates.