PMB motion says Ireland “is part of network of international corporate tax avoidance and evasion” and calls for closing of tax loopholes and full transparency

At a press conference today in Buswell’s in Hotel in Dublin, Dáil deputies, Maureen O’Sullivan, Richard Boyd Barrett and Joan Collins announced details of their private members motion (PMB) calling for a radical overhaul of Ireland’s corporate tax regime.

The private members motion dealing with the need for changes in Ireland’s corporate tax regime comes in the immediate aftermath of the OECD BEPS report, which is calling for major changes in the tax rules relating to multinational profits internationally.

Deputies, Boyd Barrett, Collins and O’Sullivan were joined at the press conference by Michael Taft (Chief Economist, Unite Trade Union).

The private members motion claims that Ireland is part of a network of international corporate tax avoidance and evasion. It calls for a series of measures to ensure proper accounting and full transparency in Ireland’s corporate tax regime particularly as it relates to multi-national corporations (MNCs). It further calls for the closing off of all loopholes in Ireland’s corporate tax regime which facilitate such avoidance and evasion by MNCs and warns that Ireland’s new knowledge box proposal must not be allowed to become another mechanism for tax avoidance following the phasing out of the so-called “double –Irish”.

The private members motion (Private Members Motion Oct 2015) will be debated on Tuesday evening 7.30pm-9pm and Wednesday 7.30pm–9pm after which there will be a full Dáil vote.

Maureen O’Sullivan said: “Injustice and Unfairness in tax systems nationally and globally have contributed significantly to the growing inequalities in society.”

Richard Boyd Barrett said: “Ireland’s international reputation is in tatters because successive governments have championed a policy of international tax piracy and a global race to the bottom in terms of corporate taxation. Irish governments, including this one, have actively facilitated aggressive tax avoidance strategies by some of the wealthiest and most profitable multinationals in the world. This phenomenon more than anything else has contributed to staggering levels of wealth inequality and indeed growing economic and financial instability; multinationals must be forced to account properly for their profits and to pay their fair share of taxation to fund services infrastructure and society generally. The Irish government must now be forced to step up to the plate and do the right thing”.

Joan Collins said: The OECD estimates that tax avoidance and evasion by major multi-national companies amounts to between $100B and $250B a year. This impacts on the world’s poorest people, denying them basic health services, education and basic infrastructure. The measures proposed by the OECD on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, BEPS, do not go far enough. In particular ‘country by country’ reporting must be put into the public domain, allowing ordinary citizens make consumer choices based on the ethical standards or indeed lack of them by large multi-national corporations.