Despre consecintele in plan fiscal ale votului negativ din Irlanda asupra Tratatului de la Lisabona. Baza comuna de impozitare

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Ireland’s no vote could affect common tax base fight

Ireland may find it harder to fight the proposed common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) after the country voted no in last week’s Lisbon Treaty referendum.

The country has been the most vehement member state against a CCCTB. The government and many businesses fear the common tax base is a forerunner to a harmonised corporate tax rate throughout the EU that would be higher than Ireland’s 12.5% charge. They argue that Ireland would lose substantial tax revenues because many Irish-based subsidiaries would leave if they had to pay more tax.

“Ireland has said no again,” said James Somerville, a partner at A&L Goodbody, an Irish law firm. “It would be easier to say no to the CCCTB as good Europeans,” he said. “Ireland has lost any goodwill it had in Europe and is not popular already among a lot of member states for opposing a CCCTB.”

Corporate tax was a key issue during the referendum campaign, says Fintan Clancy, a partner at Irish law firm Arthur Cox. “Campaigners against the Lisbon Treaty put up posters all over Dublin opposing tax harmonisation,” he said.

Under Ireland’s constitution, the country must hold a referendum on any decision to give away tax sovereignty. Clancy argues that if the country had voted in favour of the Lisbon Treaty the Irish government could have given away the country’s veto on direct tax policy without another vote. “This could have paved the way for a CCCTB,” he said.

But the EU’s tax commissioner Laszlo Kovacs told Reuters that the Lisbon Treaty would not affect the plans for a CCCTB. “All those that campaigned against the Lisbon Treaty with slogans that Ireland will lose tax sovereignty were simply telling lies,” Kovacs said.