Ireland and Estonia will join the global agreement on a 15% minimum corporate tax for multinational companies starting in 2023: 134 out of 140 countries have already signed the OECD agreement, which is crucial (and symbolic). On the eve of the new OECD ministerial meeting in Paris, the Irish same confirmation came from Finance Minister Pascal Donohue after moving forward with the Dublin government.

Farewell to a cornerstone of Irish economic policy

“This is the balance between our competitiveness and our position in the world,” Donoho said. % When corporate tax is waived, Ireland declares itself to remain attractive to multinational investments. For more than twenty years, it has been strongly resisted by pressure from its European Union partners, France.

Favorable taxes (guaranteed not only corporate taxes, but also targeted subsidies or contracts that allow multinational corporations to pay trivial taxes) were a key factor in bringing European headquarters Google, Apple and Facebook to Dublin.

SMEs are excluded

The new rate will affect more than 1,500 companies employing about 400,000 people in Ireland and, according to preliminary estimates, steal $ 2 billion a year from the state treasury. On the other hand, Irish small and medium enterprises with an annual turnover of less than 50 750 million will continue to make a profit of 12.5%. Assurances in this sense were one of the two factors that persuaded Ireland to abandon the lapses that led to the non-signing of the agreement in June.

However, even more important was the second factor: a revision of the text of the agreement, which refers to the tax as “at least 15%”, but with some hints that those who want to invest “just 15%” and eliminate the Irish fear, when the European Union passes the proposal to implement the new regime, as some countries prefer High rates will not be introduced. “The European Commission – Donoco added – assured me that this proposal would be faithful to the agreement and would not go beyond international consensus.”