IRELAND IS THE 6th worst corporate tax haven globally, according to new research by Oxfam.
Bermuda tops the list of 15 countries, followed by the Cayman Islands and the Netherlands. Ireland is sixth on the list, behind Switzerland and Singapore.
“Ireland is part of a toxic global tax system servicing the very wealthiest while ordinary people pay the price and lose out on essential public services,” said Jim Clarken, CEO of Oxfam Ireland today.
Around the world we are known as a country of good fun, bad weather and awful tax policies that facilitate worsening inequality by allowing some of the world’s richest companies to avoid paying their fair share to society. This is no badge of honour.
Oxfam said Ireland’s score was based on its lack of effective rules to prevent corporate tax dodging and because it facilitates large-scale corporate tax avoidance through profit-shifting, aggressive tax planning structures and so-called sweetheart deals.
“From a national, European and international perspective, the game is up. Citizens everywhere have had enough. We need to get serious about making companies pay the tax that’s due and we need transparency about where and how profits are made and where and how they are taxed. We collect more detailed data about farm animals in this country than we do about the tax affairs of multinationals,” Clarken said.
Changing Ireland’s tax rules would lessen the burden on individual tax payers and citizens, Clarken said, with more money to spend on health and education.
“Governments are falling over themselves to ensure corporations pay as little tax as they wish – and starving their countries of the money needed to education, healthcare and job creation in the process. They must ensure companies pay a fair amount of corporation tax, otherwise their citizens will continue to pay the price.”
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