A Senior EU Official briefed a meeting in Dublin on 28 June on the CCCTB project.

Mr Matthias Mors, Director within the EC Tax secretariat addressed a well attended meeting of the Irish Institute of European Affairs on the subject of CCCTB.

He made a very full presentation on the history and development of the concept of CCCTB emphasising that it was a process initiated by the member States not by the Commission. He was also very clear that the question of Ireland's low Tax rate was not on the agenda.

Mr Mors further emphasised the need for contact and comment from the business community throughout the Community and of course Ireland.

The aim is to have no specific linkage between the CCCTB methodology to International Accounting Standards, not least because not all companies are bound by IAS. CCCTB will develop a single set of rules which will apply particularly to companies doing business across the Community.

While the aim is to reduce compliance and achieve greater certainty, the meeting discussed the practicalities in the light of the base being optional. The optional nature of the application of the base was a particular focus for the meeting.

There could in theory be 26 bases to choose from depending on where the group was operating. Even if there was no unanimity among all Member States to adopt CCCTB, the principle of enhanced co-operation could allow for eight or more members to operate a single bloc, but each member could have some companies in and some out.

No definitive view of the support level from Member States could be given but there was an impression among attendees that many States were adopting a policy of “wait and see”.

The meeting discussed the issue of profit allocation which is shortly to appear on the agenda of the CCTB Working Group. This was generally seen as major sticking point for Ireland Inc in that the advantage of a low rate depends on the amount of profits to which that rate applies.

The Commission is most anxious to hear the views of business as well as those of Irish officials. ICAI is engaged in an active campaign of monitoring and lobbying on this very important issue both at national and EU level. If there are points you would wish to see raised, please contact Brian Keegan, Director of Taxation (brian.keegan@icai.ie) at the Institute.