IRELAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Andrew Quinn, David Burke, William Fogarty and Lynn Cramer, Maples Group
In respect of anti-avoidance rules, Ireland already maintains a longstanding general anti-abuse rule under its tax code. Following a review of the relevant provisions, the Irish tax authorities have indicated that an amendment of the GAAR will not be necessary. Consequently, the proposed double taxation con - vention limitation of benefit and anti-avoidance rules are unlikely to have a significant impact on Ireland in respect of inbound and outbound investors. 9.10 Transfer Pricing and IP Taxation As Ireland has had transfer pricing rules since 2011, the changes are not expected to present any major hurdles to the Irish regime. The Finance Act 2019 introduced changes with effect from 1 January 2020 to bring the current regime in line with the new 2017 OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines, which reflect the outcomes of BEPS Actions 8–10 and 13. 9.11 Country-by-Country Reporting and Transparency Provisions Country-by-country (CbC) reporting provisions are part of Action 13 of the OECD BEPS Action Plan and the EU Commission’s Anti-Tax Avoidance Package. CbC reporting requires large multinational enterprises (MNEs) to file a CbC Report providing a breakdown of the amount of revenue, profits, taxes and other indica - tors of economic activities for each tax jurisdiction in which the MNE group does business. An EU Directive implemented these measures in May 2016, and they are applicable to MNE groups with an Irish presence and turnover exceeding EUR750 million. The EU Directive on public country-by-country report - ing (the “CbCR Directive”) entered into force on 21 December 2022 and was implemented in Ireland with effect from 22 June 2024. The new rules require multinational groups with a total consolidated revenue of EUR750 million to report if they are EU parented or otherwise have EU subsidi - aries or branches of a certain size. The report also requires information on all members of the group (including non-EU members) within seven key areas (activities, number of employees, net turnover, profit or loss before tax, tax accrued, tax paid and accumu - lated earnings). The reporting requirements under the Directive took effect from the commencement date
of the first financial year starting on or after 22 June 2024. The information must be broken down for each EU member state where the group is active, and also for each jurisdiction deemed to be “non-cooperative” by the EU or that has been on the EU’s “grey” list for a minimum of two years. Reports are to be published in an EU member state business register, and also on the companies’ websites, where they are to remain accessible for at least five years. When the ultimate parent is not governed by the law of an EU member state, the reporting will generally have to be done by the EU subsidiaries or branches, unless the ultimate parent publishes a report including those subsidiaries and branches. 9.12 Digital Economy Businesses No changes have been discussed or proposed at a domestic level. In 2023 the European Commission proposed a new directive entitled “Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation” (BEFIT). This directive will ultimately lay down a common set of rules for EU companies to calculate their taxable base with an allocation of prof - its between EU member states based on a formula. If adopted by the European Council, member states would be expected to implement the BEFIT Directive by 1 January 2028. The Commission argues that the proposal will reduce compliance costs by creating a coherent approach to corporate taxation in the EU, but the proposal and its predecessor (the common consolidated corporate tax base) have long been controversial and resisted by a number of member states, including Ireland. In 2023, the Council of the European Union adopt - ed new tax transparency rules for service providers facilitating transactions in crypto-assets for custom - ers resident in the EU. This has brought crypto-asset providers and platforms providing services in relation to cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets into the scope of the automatic exchange of information. The EU DAC8 Directive (DAC8) will introduce disclo - sure and reporting obligations for crypto intermediar -
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