30/09/21

IRELAND: Donohoe expects updated OECD global tax text in coming days.

As published on irishexaminer.com, Wednesday 29 September, 2021.

Ireland expects to receive an updated text of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) proposed overhaul of global corporate tax rules in the coming days in a "critical moment" for negotiations, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said.

The Government has so far declined to sign up to an OECD agreement struck by over 130 of 139 negotiating countries.

It has focused its criticism on the agreement's proposed minimum rate of "at least" 15%.

Agreement on the issue will be sought among all negotiating countries at an OECD meeting on October 8, Mr Donohoe told reporters.

"I do expect next week will be a critical moment for the negotiations that have been under way for years and will show whether an agreement is possible by the end of next week,” Mr Donohoe said, adding that it was too soon to say if Irish concerns would be addressed.

He was speaking after a meeting of G7 finance ministers that he attended in his role as president of the Eurogroup, the grouping of eurozone finance ministers.

He said he was asked by his colleagues to put forward Ireland's position and said he had focused on Ireland's opposition to a rate of "at least" 15%.

"In order for this change to actually happen, everybody who is involved in this change wants confidence that everyone is going to move on it and that would be a concern for more than Ireland," Mr Donohoe said when asked if Dublin would wait to see if congress passes the measures before deciding its own position.

Ireland's agreement would be a big boost for the project to impose a minimum global rate.