Results 1,281-1,300 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: It is very difficult to be absolutely certain of the detail in retrospect. The first opinion was in 1991, which is 26 years ago. The Senator may recall, if she has done some research into corporation tax, that Apple came to Ireland in 1980. Right through the 1980s - like other exporting companies - it had export sales relief. Export sales relief meant that exporting manufacturing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: Since tax-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: It is my last point. Since tax is a sovereign competence, it is Irish law that applies in Irish tax cases. Revenue applied Irish law. There is a retrospective run on it now. There was another opinion in 2007. That is a long time ago as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: Multinational companies structure themselves in different ways. Some of the structures are quite complex. It does not just apply to Apple. In Ireland's case, the legal advice and the opinion of Revenue was that only the profits generated from economic activity in Ireland were taxable. Apple paid the full 12.5% on the profits made on the economic activity in Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: The two companies were non-resident companies. The opinion of Revenue was that the profits made by non-resident companies were not amenable to Irish tax. They were amenable to tax back where the parent companies were in the United States. The assumption was that while Apple did not pay tax on the profits which were accrued to the United States, they had a tax liability at 35% but that tax...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: The Commission, as well as being the administration arm of the European Union, is also a political forum. The Deputy has dealt with Commissioners. It is a political forum where the political impact of what it does is assessed as well. It is part of the way Europe is run. I do not think it was focusing on Ireland in particular. It shares a view that I shared, and which I still share, that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: The biggest company is in Ireland. It proceeded against Luxembourg, Holland and Belgium in a variety of cases with which the Deputy will be familiar.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: Many decisions in Europe are a mix of technical data and politics. There was a political input here. That is not to say the Commission is wrong. The court will test that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: I hope so but there is another difficulty there. The judges are not as familiar with common law and we are a common law jurisdiction. Sometimes when these things are discussed there is a mismatch between the opinions because they are coming at it from a different legal perspective. Someone asked one of our officials lately why there are not court cases about tax in Ireland. As the Deputy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: I do not think it diminishes our chances but in the prediction business, it makes it more difficult for people here or in the UK, who see things through a common law lens, to predict with accuracy what the result will be.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: The Commission did not include the €13 billion in its decision. The €13 billion was the estimate it gave when it were describing what had happened. It included a method of calculation on the primary case. In the work that has been conducted to date by the Revenue Commissioners and in sharing the information with the Department, I understand there is no strong reason to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: I will read a note on the interest as well because I do not want toad libit. The application of interest in the recovery calculation is set out in the EU regulation published on the Commission's website. The interest rate varies according to the date and the individual member state, although generally speaking the rate is linked with EURIBOR rates. The interest is calculated on a compound...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: Until the case is decided there will obviously be uncertainty about whose liability it was to collect the tax. It has not affected the flow of foreign direct investment into the country. The Commissioner, Ms Vestager, said they had gathered data on 19 other companies and none of the other 18 was proceeded against. The state aid activity of the Commission is ongoing and other files are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: I cannot add to what is in the public domain on NAMA's practice but I am assuming we will get parliamentary questions on it and we will give a more detailed response to them. I do not think we will be able to increase the estimate of tax forgone because I assume that NAMA did not try to change structure or behaviour when the law changed in the Dáil. It just accepted the new legal...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: The sales of property portfolios, through which this mechanism facilitated tax avoidance, started around early 2014 so it would probably be in autumn 2015 when the Revenue had detailed information in the form of tax returns from these companies. It was brought to our attention in early 2016 and we moved as soon as we had figured out a way of closing the loophole. Unusually, we published it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: The statement is an inaccurate characterisation of the facts of this case and the application of Irish tax law. These companies are not Irish tax resident. Our tax legislation, which reflects international norms, only allows us to tax non-resident companies on the profits they make in Ireland. The central aspect of this case is that the economic activity that created the value in Apple's...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: I do not know. I am not competent to answer that. In the public presentation of the case, the Commission and its spokespersons have always said that, effectively, one cannot stand over a case where the biggest company in the world is paying 0.01% or an amount of that nature - a figure which the Commission has put into the public domain. Of course, that is true and I would not stand over it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: That is part of it. We would say that the Revenue Commissioners fulfilled all their obligations under Irish law and collected all the tax due to Ireland under that law. It is not our business to collect tax that was appropriately due in other jurisdictions. I am not defending the case that multinationals should not make a bigger contribution internationally. The matter has to be sorted...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: Yes, but this decision does not help.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: EU State Aid Rules - Investigation into Preferential Tax Rulings: Minister for Finance and Office of the Revenue Commissioners (2 Feb 2017)

Michael Noonan: No, it is outside of the US. It is worldwide outside of the US.