DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland will need more detail over how proposed global corporate tax rules would apply to the rate, amount of assets to be taxed and how bills can be cut before deciding whether to back the overhaul, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Wednesday.
Ireland, the European headquarters for many of the world’s largest multinationals, has so far declined to sign up to the agreement struck by 132 of 139 negotiating countries, primarily baulking at a proposed minimum rate of at least 15%, higher than its low 12.5% rate.
Dublin has said it supports much of the deal and hopes to be in a position to endorse it by an October deadline.
But Donohoe went into more detail on Dublin’s opposition on Wednesday, including so-called carve-outs on how companies can cut their tax bills in other ways, such as offsets for research and development.
“It is issues like what the base would be. It is issues like what the rate would be. There is language in the current agreement in relation to the scope of carve-outs, but that language is at the moment still caveated,” Donohoe told parliament.
“These are really important issues for us to understand.”
Donohoe said another “deeply important issue” and one that required a lot of further clarification was how any agreement will be enforced and when it will be implemented, stressing that most countries would have to adopt the changes at roughly the same time.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries and Padraic Halpin; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
