Wall Street Journal op-ed piece by John Bruton and Kevin Murphy --
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development doesn't regard Ireland as a tax haven. The OECD identifies four key indicators of a tax haven and none of them applies to Ireland. The first indicator is having no taxes or only nominal taxes; the second is a lack of transparency; the third is an unwillingness to exchange information with tax administrators of OECD countries; and the fourth is an absence of a substantial activity requirement. None of these criteria describes Ireland ...In December 2012, Ireland became one of the first countries in the world to sign an agreement with the U.S. to improve international tax compliance and to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. This type of agreement is now being hailed as the emerging international standard for the automatic exchange of tax information between countries.
Irish Times op-ed by Joanne Richardson --
The OECD identifies four key indicators of a tax haven. They are: having no taxes or only nominal taxes; a lack of transparency; an unwillingness to exchange information with tax administrations of OECD member countries; and the absence of a substantial activity requirement. None of these criteria applies to Ireland. Furthermore, in December 2012, Ireland became one of the first countries in the world to sign an agreement with the United States to improve international tax compliance and implement Fatca (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act). This type of agreement is now being hailed as the emerging international standard for the automatic exchange of tax information.
Now in fairness the rest of the articles have fairly different content, and the point about FATCA is a good one given that FATCA faced a well organized media campaign against it in the US and Europe before European governments realized its potential in their own assault on tax evasion by their citizens.
But, the similarities above point to the obvious: there are talking points circulating, prepared by vested interests in the current Irish corporate tax system, and finding their way into opinion pages of newspapers.
Not necessarily good or bad. Something to be aware of.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development doesn't regard Ireland as a tax haven. The OECD identifies four key indicators of a tax haven and none of them applies to Ireland. The first indicator is having no taxes or only nominal taxes; the second is a lack of transparency; the third is an unwillingness to exchange information with tax administrators of OECD countries; and the fourth is an absence of a substantial activity requirement. None of these criteria describes Ireland ...In December 2012, Ireland became one of the first countries in the world to sign an agreement with the U.S. to improve international tax compliance and to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. This type of agreement is now being hailed as the emerging international standard for the automatic exchange of tax information between countries.
Irish Times op-ed by Joanne Richardson --
The OECD identifies four key indicators of a tax haven. They are: having no taxes or only nominal taxes; a lack of transparency; an unwillingness to exchange information with tax administrations of OECD member countries; and the absence of a substantial activity requirement. None of these criteria applies to Ireland. Furthermore, in December 2012, Ireland became one of the first countries in the world to sign an agreement with the United States to improve international tax compliance and implement Fatca (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act). This type of agreement is now being hailed as the emerging international standard for the automatic exchange of tax information.
Now in fairness the rest of the articles have fairly different content, and the point about FATCA is a good one given that FATCA faced a well organized media campaign against it in the US and Europe before European governments realized its potential in their own assault on tax evasion by their citizens.
But, the similarities above point to the obvious: there are talking points circulating, prepared by vested interests in the current Irish corporate tax system, and finding their way into opinion pages of newspapers.
Not necessarily good or bad. Something to be aware of.