Full coverage: OECD

Intense discussions are continuing to decide how international principles agreed at OECD-sponsored tax negotiations will be implemented, and the devil is in the detail.

By tinkering with corporation tax, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe is giving assurances that Ireland is ready for the 15 per cent minimum rate. There may be deeper reforms on the table, but they will be for his successor to lead to fruition.

Pascal Saint-Amans’s career as OECD tax director culminated one year ago when he secured a global agreement to overhaul corporation tax. As he leaves this position, he assesses the work remaining to be done.

The Minister for Finance heads to an EU meeting in Prague hopeful of a 15% corporation tax directive, but the full OECD agreement is far from ready for implementation.

Instead of playing along the rules agreed by 137 countries to raise corporation tax to a global minimum, Democratic Senators have selected the bits that favour narrow American interests – and put international co-operation at risk.

Last year’s global tax deal now comes with draft “Pillar one” provisions detailing how much taxable profit will be re-allocated to market countries, and where from. This is what it means for multinationals operating here.

EU ministers have again failed to agree on how to implement the global OECD deal on multinational taxation. The whole project could still be derailed, or at least delayed – and some corporations continue to jump into the gap in the meantime.

The OECD has published the common rules laid down by participants in this year’s global agreement on the taxation of multinationals. Their implementation at EU level will dictate how much US firms end up paying in Ireland.

The Irish obsession with the 12.5% corporation tax rate has already receded into the background of crunch global talks on the taxation of multinationals. Attempts to hammer out the details of a full deal have deep ramifications here and around the world.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, his European Commission counterpart Paolo Gentiloni and Ireland's accountancy bodies agree on one thing: the future of multinational taxation has yet to be decided in Washington. The worst-case scenario for Ireland would be to sign up to the latest OECD proposals, only to see them thwarted by partisan strife in the US.