05/09/22

INTERNATIONAL TAX: OECD’s tax chief Pascal Saint-Amans to step down after more than 10 years in the job.

As published on irishtimes.com, Monday 5 September, 2022.

Pascal Saint-Amans, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) head of tax, who spearheaded efforts to reform the global tax system to clampdown on multinational tax avoidance, is to step down after more than a decade in the job.

He will retire from the OECD at the end of October “to pursue other career opportunities”, the Paris-based organisation confirmed on Monday.

As director of the centre for tax policy at the OECD, Mr Saint-Amans has overseen two big projects aimed at changing the way multinationals are taxed.

First, with the base erosion and profit-shifting (Beps) project, the OECD updated rules on transfer pricing and harmful tax regimes while introducing a country-by-country reporting regime, the combined effect of which prompted changes to international tax law, including the phasing out of the so-called double Irish loophole here.

Now, the OECD is completing work on a project to reform the taxation of the digital economy with a two-pillar solution, part of which will see a minimum global rate of 15 per cent.

Ireland’s long-established corporate tax rate of 12.5 per cent is one of the main victims of the deal, which has still to be ratified by the US Congress. The fear is that a minimum rate could undermine the uniqueness of Ireland’s offering. However, the chief executive of IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan, said recently that the “certainty and stability” of being involved in the deal, agreed last October, will offset the move to a higher rate.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe estimates that corporation tax receipts here will be roughly €2 billion lower by 2025 as a result of the proposed changes, while warning the fall-off could be bigger. Receipts from the business tax are expected to top a record €18 billion this year.

“After 15 years at OECD, I have decided to step down as director of OECD Tax,” Mr Saint-Amans said in a statement. “This is the outcome of a long reflection and I feel privileged to have served this unique organisation and its members for so many years.

“I have been incredibly lucky to be in the most exciting place to witness and facilitate the fundamental, and once-in-a-century, changes to the international tax system. The two-pillar deal in October 2021 was the culmination of more than a decade of hard work to introduce a tax regulation of globalisation. What we have built together is here to last,” he said.

“Pillar Two will soon be implemented globally and Pillar One will set the architecture of the tax system. A page was turned last October,” he said.

Grace Perez-Navarro, Mr Saint-Amans’s deputy, has been appointed interim director of the group’s tax unit from November 1st until March 31st next year, when a permanent replacement will take over.