The European Commissioner for Taxation has launched proposals for a common consolidated corporate tax base.
Commissioner Algirdas Semeta said the idea would reduce company tax compliance costs by two-thirds across the EU and boost economic growth by billions of euro, because companies could now offset cross-border losses against profits for tax purposes.
Mr Semeta said that CCCTB would not harmonise corporate tax rates, which he said remained the preserve of member states.
These long-awaited proposals from the European Commission have been given extra prominence due to the 2008 financial crisis.
At a news conference in Brussels, Mr Semeta insisted the plan would benefit the European economy because a single tax base, and a formula to share out which profits are taxed where, would help multinationals enormously, since they would have only one tax return to make instead of 27 as at present.
When asked about the Ernst & Young study commissioned by the Department of Finance, which claimed that compliance costs would actually increase and that unemployment in Ireland would rise, the Commissioner said the study was based on assumptions which did not rely on the actual content of the proposals being published today.
He said the commission had ordered six separate studies to ensure a fair system, and he said a safeguard clause would ensure that countries were not seeing less of corporate profits taxed at their national rates (in Ireland's case, the 12.5% rate).
A Department of Finance statement said the Government remained sceptical, but would engage constructively with the Commission and EU partners on the issue.
A statement from the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU said the CCCTB should reduce compliance costs and make investing simpler and cheaper for US multinationals.
