Ireland still has one of the lowest corporation tax rates in the EU at 12.5%, but Cyprus and Bulgaria are undercutting it with a lower rate at 10%.
A European Commission report today states that the strong overall trend across the EU is a reduction in corporation taxes, with several countries cutting their rates this year.
The report also shows that in the first year of the economic crisis, 2008, Ireland had one of the lowest tax burdens in the EU. Ireland, Romania, Latvia and Slovakia had a tax-to-tax GDP rate of less than 30%. The highest rates were in Denmark and Sweden at 50%.
The average top personal income tax rate in the EU increased in 2010, mainly due to a 10 percentage point increase in the UK, bringing top UK rates to 50%. Ireland's top rate is at 41% - down three percentage points since 2000.
The figures released today also show that European Union citizens are taxed far more heavily than US or Japanese counterparts. The overall tax-to-GDP ratio for 2008 was 39.3%, a slight fall on the previous year. That compared with 26.9% in the US, using 2007 figures, and a provisional estimate of 28.3% in Japan.
However, the rates vary widely within Europe - ranging from 28% in Romania to 48.2% in Denmark.
