Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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115. To ask the Minister for Finance when the State will ratify the BEPS multilateral instrument; the process for doing same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37125/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Multilateral Instrument will modify existing bilateral tax treaties to bring them into line with new international best practices agreed as part of the OECD BEPS initiative.  Over 70 countries, including Ireland, have already signed up to this Multilateral Instrument.  

The Multilateral Instrument must be ratified by Ireland before it can come into effect and amend any of our existing tax treaties.  The process involves amending the Taxes Consolidation Act to give Government the legal authority to make an Order ratifying the Multilateral Instrument.  As with all international agreements, the making of this Government Order will require Dáil approval.

Once this Order has been made, a second legislative provision will be required to include the Multilateral Instrument in the list of ratified international tax agreements set out in Schedule 24A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. 

My intention is to begin the ratification process as soon as possible and to complete all legislative steps during 2018.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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116. To ask the Minister for Finance the timeframe and the process by which the anti-tax avoidance directives and the directives on administrative co-operation will be implemented; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37126/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive was agreed by Member States in June 2016 to implement a number of the OECD BEPS recommendations within the EU.  In February 2017, Member States agreed to amend the Directive to strengthen certain aspects of the rules in relation to hybrids mismatches. 

Ireland will be required to implement the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directives by way of primary legislation over a number of Finance Bills in line with the timeframes provided for in the Directive. These timeframes are: 

- Controlled foreign company rules must be implemented by 1 January 2019.

- A General anti-abuse rule must be implemented by 1 January 2019.

- Exit tax rules must be implemented by 1 January 2020.

- Rules to prevent hybrid mismatches, the first elements of which must be implemented by 1 January 2020.

- Interest limitation rules.  Ireland has informed the European Commission that, as our existing interest limitation rules are at least equally effective to the rules contained in the Directive, we will be availing of the derogation provided in Article 11(6) of the Directive and are therefore not required to implement these rules until 1 January 2024.

The Directive on Administrative Cooperation enables the exchange of tax information among EU Member States.  The Directive was first agreed in 2011 and has been amended five times since then.  Ireland has fully implemented all five previous versions of this Directive.  

The most recently agreed amendment to the Directive, which is known as DAC6, requires Member States to ensure that tax authorities have access to information required to be held by taxpayers under the money laundering legislation.  My intention is to implement DAC6 by way of Regulations before the end of this year.