EU critical of Ireland's tax regime progress
Ireland has only made “limited progress” towards broadening its tax base, and dealing with aggressive tax planning by multinational companies, according to the European Commission.
In its latest country report on Ireland, the Commission said that recent revenue measures are not meaningfully contributing to broadening the tax base.
It also said the effectiveness of new measures aimed at limiting the scope for aggressive tax planning — and the impact on corporate income tax revenue in the medium term — “will need to be addressed”.
The report also said uncertainty over the sustainability of the current high level of corporate tax receipts is putting the country’s public finances at risk.
“The high level of corporate taxes, volatile and potentially transient in nature, and the dependence on a small number of multinationals represents a risk to public finances,” the Commission said.
Ireland has also not yet fully exploited the potential of environmental taxation, it said.
