Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 June 2015
87. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Finance his views on the European Commission's preliminary finding that in several instances the methods for determining profit allocation between a company's subsidiaries (details supplied) here do not appear to comply with the arm's length principle for establishing transfer prices; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24160/15]
View answerLast year, the European Commission announced its intention to open formal state aid investigations into tax rulings provided to a number of companies in various Member States of the European Union. More recently the Commission announced that it was broadening its enquiries to include all Member States.
I would like to emphasise that, while the Commission has opened a formal investigation in relation to one particular case involving Ireland, it has not made a final determination in the matter. As the Commission has acknowledged, Ireland has co-operated fully with the process to date and will continue to do so.
For state aid to exist in this case, the company must have been charged less tax than should have been charged under Irish tax legislation. As part of this formal investigation, the Commission wrote to Ireland to ask for our response to their concerns in relation to the particular case. Ireland has responded to this letter, comprehensively addressing the Commission's concerns and making it clear that the appropriate amount of Irish tax was charged in accordance with the relevant legislation, that no selective advantage was given and that there was no state aid.
This is a confidential matter between Ireland and the Commission and I am not in a position to comment on the specific details of our response as the matter is subject to a formal process of investigation and relates to a specific taxpayer.
While it would not be appropriate to speculate on the outcome at this stage, I remain of the view that there was no breach of State aid rules in this case and that the legislative provisions were correctly applied.
In the event that the Commission forms the view that there was state aid, as I and my colleagues in Government have already indicated Ireland will challenge this decision in the European Courts, to continue to vigorously defend the Irish position.
