Background
On Budget Day 2017, the Irish Finance Minister confirmed that Seamus Coffey had been appointed as the independent expert to carry out a review of Ireland’s corporate tax code. Seamus Coffey is a lecturer in Economics in University College Cork (UCC) and current Chair of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. On completion of the tax code review, Mr Coffey will make recommendations to the Finance Minister by the end of the end of June 2017.
As part of the the review process Mr Coffey has met with industry and professional bodies and now a six week public consultation period will run until 4 April 2017. The public consultation is being facilitated by the Irish Department of Finance. Responses sought to the consultation may assist in the formulation of recommendations to the Minister. A copy of the public consultation document can be found here.
Terms of Reference
The terms of reference for Mr Coffey’s corporate tax code review provide for the following matters:
- achieving the highest international standards in tax transparency, including in the automatic exchange of information on tax rulings with other relevant jurisdictions, having regard to benefits which may accrue to developing countries from enhancing global tax transparency;
- ensuring that the corporation tax code does not provide preferential treatment to any taxpayer;
- further implementing Ireland’s commitments under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project to tackle harmful tax competition and aggressive tax planning;
- delivering tax certainty for business and maintaining the competitiveness of Ireland’s corporation tax offering; and,
- maintaining the 12.5% rate of corporation tax.
In November 2016, the Minister also announced that an examination of the role and sustainability of the corporation tax receipts shall also form part of the subject matter of the review. This was following the increase in Irish corporation tax receipts in 2015 and 2016.