Leo flies to Paris to tackle Macron on corporation tax
LEO Varadkar flies to Paris today to warn French President Emmanuel Macron not to interfere with our corporation tax.
The Taoiseach goes to the Élysée Palace for his first official visit to Mr Macron, his closest political peer in Europe, whose ascent to power this year has paralleled Leo’s own.
He told Mr Macron, on the margins of the Brussels Brexit summit last week, that he had concerns about recent remarks by the president on Irish corporation tax, but would talk to him again in Paris.
Mr Macron had picked up the baton of some of his predecessors, notably Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacque Chirac, who criticised Ireland’s 12.5% rate. Mr Macron seemed to approve the European Commission’s case against Ireland over €13billion in alleged tax liabilities owed by Apple. He called for Ireland to bring in an extra levy against major digital corporations, which support tens of thousands of livelihoods in this country.
Mr Varadkar will point out that Ireland has been to the forefront of an initiative by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which is based in Paris, to counter global tax avoidance or evasion by stateless companies, many of them globallyfamous brands.
He will tell Mr Macron that Ireland ended the so-called double-Irish tax switchback ruse that allowed profits to remain permanently offshore, and has played a part in developing the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) process, aimed to curb ‘base erosion’ of taxable companies in nation states.
The two leaders will also discuss Brexit, with Mr Varadkar keen to have face-to-face talks with leading European leaders about the situation on this island, so that they have a keen understanding of Ireland’s case.
There will be much focus on the body language after the talks, and whether it reveals if the two have forged a better personal understanding. That said, Mr Varadkar’s staff do not expect Mr Macron to become the ‘Justin of Europe’ – a reference to Leo’s friendship with Justin Trudeau.