Ireland attracted an estimated 1,000 multinationals in the tech, finance and pharma sectors on the back of its corporate tax policy, including Pfizer, Intel, Yahoo, LinkedIn, TikTok, Apple, IBM and Twitter. He also confirmed that the European Commission directive that implements the OECD agreement вЂњwill be faithful to that agreement and not go beyond that consensusвЂќ and that Ireland could continue to apply a 12.5% tax rate for companies that generate less than в‚¬750m a year globally.Дonohoe said Ireland needed to continue to provide вЂњpredictabilityвЂќ to business and had it not signed up it would have lost вЂњinfluence with respect to critical decisions that will take place in the coming monthsвЂќ.

вЂњIвЂ™m absolute convinced that our interests are better serviced within the agreement.вЂќДonohoe confirmed that Dublin had succeeded in getting the phrase вЂњat leastвЂќ out of a July draft pledge for a tax of вЂњat least 15%вЂќ, which had raised concerns that further rate rises might be in the pipeline. вЂњThis is the right decision,вЂќ said the finance minister, Paschal Donohoe. The government said 56 Irish multinationals employing 100,000 staff and 1,500 foreign multinationals employing 400,000 would be affected. The Irish government said the deal would be вЂњgold-platedвЂќ, with assurances sought and received from the EU that it would not seek to increase the tax rate further down the line. The new arrangements, which will be limited to companies earning more than в‚¬750m globally a year, will come into force in 2023 and cost the Irish exchequer between в‚¬800m and в‚¬2bn a year, according to government estimates. Under this scheme multinationals paid as little as 1-2% tax of their revenue, a fraction of the 12.5% headline tax rate in Ireland and the 35% in the US. However, sources close to IrelandвЂ™s government said they were not concerned about the flight of multinationals, as the biggest blow to its low-tax regime came in 2015 when, under pressure from the EU, tax avoidance schemes known as the вЂњdouble IrishвЂќ were outlawed. It brings an end to the countryвЂ™s 12.5% tax rate that has applied since 1 January 2003, which has frustrated critics in other EU countries and the UK where higher corporate tax rates have applied. Ireland was initially one of nine countries to refuse to join the scheme, but on Thursday afternoon its cabinet signed off on a deal before a wider OECD announcement expected on Friday at 6pm. The decision comes after months of wrangling over the fine print of an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) agreement to operate a 15% minimum tax rate in more than 130 countries. Ireland has dropped its cornerstone low-tax policy of the past 18 years, which helped persuade some of the worldвЂ™s biggest companies, including Google and Facebook, to site their European headquarters in Dublin.

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