Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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289. To ask the Minister for Finance the work his Department has carried out in ensuring that a minimum effective tax rate is paid by companies offsetting substantial losses accrued against their tax liabilities during the crash; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1664/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Loss relief provisions are an essential part of corporate tax systems. Under the Irish corporate tax system, losses incurred in the course of a business are allowed to be taken into account in calculating the appropriate amount of tax due by companies. Loss relief recognises the fact that business cycles run over a longer period than just a single year and that it would be inequitable to tax profits in one year and not allow loss relief in the next.  

Under existing loss relief provisions in the Tax Acts, any unrelieved trading losses of a company for an accounting period may be carried forward for offset against trading income of the same trade in future accounting periods. Alternatively, a company may claim to have the loss set off against profits of any description for the same accounting period in which the loss was incurred or of an immediately preceding accounting period of the same length.

The provision of relief for such losses is a standard feature of our tax code and of all other OECD countries.