Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 42:

In page 49, lines 36 and 37, to delete “in the current accounting period or any subsequent accounting period” and substitute “in any accounting period”.

Section 36 of the Bill inserts a new Chapter 5 into Part 33 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 to apply new measures to outbound payments of interest, royalties and distributions, including dividends, aimed at the prevention of double non-taxation. This is achieved by way of withholding taxes on outbound payments of interest, royalties and distributions made by Irish companies, and Irish branches of foreign companies, to an associated entity that is resident, or situated in territories included in Annex I of the EU list of non-co-operative jurisdictions for tax purposes, or no-tax and zero-tax territories, together referred to as specified territories.

As Deputies will already be aware of the key features of this provision, I will not repeat them here. I am sure colleagues want to get to other amendments. It is important to note, however, that the defensive measures should be proportionate and tailored to the objective of tackling aggressive tax planning, while not damaging Irish businesses' competitiveness. In order to achieve this goal of a proportionate defensive measure, care has been taken in the drafting of the legislation to ensure legitimate commercial operations are not affected by the measure. Its drafting has been informed by a public consultation process conducted in quarter 4 of 2021 and a detailed feedback statement process launched in July of this year.

I am bringing forward an amendment to section 36. I propose to delete the wording "in the current accounting period or any subsequent accounting period" and substitute "in any accounting period". The amendment is a minor technical amendment to the definition of "relevant payment" to ensure the legislation operates as intended.

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