A recent report criticising Ireland’s economic growth plan – initially labelled as coming from the German Bundestag Finance Committee – has caused controversy and tension in Irish-German relations, but an analysis of the facts shows the report does not wholly represent German attitudes towards Ireland.
The Senate Finance Committee this week held a hearing on proposals to reform the taxation of multinational enterprises, and given the recent trend of US companies inverting abroad, the hearing unsurprisingly focused on dealing with inversions.
Campaigners including Christian Aid, Global Witness and Tax Research have hailed the UK government’s proposal to implement a register of beneficial ownership as a world first. But they are now warning that the register may not be accurate if carried forward in line with existing plans.
Medtronic and Covidien announced last weekend that they intend to complete a $43 billion tie-up and fellow US pharmaceutical company, AbbVie, is set to send a formal $31 billion offer for Irish rival Shire today: the trend of inversion transactions out of the US shows no signs of abating.
Despite the recent spate of corporate inversion transactions, not all US taxpayers have caught the inversion bug. Danaher Corporation's Jim Ditkoff tells International Tax Review "Congress can do whatever they want with inversions as far as I'm concerned". Here he explains why Danaher is not following the herd by inverting overseas.
Labour, the opposition political party in the UK, will raise corporation tax if it comes to power after the next election. And Shabana Mahmood, shadow exchequer secretary to the Treasury says her party would also focus on improving tax transparency.
