An important part of Chartered Accountants Ireland's function is to represent our members on matters of tax policy and administration through the Pre-Budget submission process and various calls for evidence as extended by the Commission on Taxation at the beginning of its review process. Therefore, Chartered Accountants Ireland and along with our fellow accountancy bodies under the CCAB-I are pleased to note that our expert comment and analysis as outlined in various submissions made over the last number of years have been recognised as sustainable recommendations in the Commission on Taxation's Report. Of course, there is still along way to go in having the Commission's more pro-business recommendations implemented by Government but the formal recognition of many of our proposals is a least a step in the right direction.

Some of the recommendations put forward by Chartered Accountants Ireland and the CCAB-I which are supported by the recommendations of the Commission include:

• All companies should be allowed to adopt a previous year option in relation to the payment of preliminary tax.
• The close company surcharge on professional service companies should be removed.
• Companies should, at their option, be permitted to offset their R&D tax credit against their employer PRSI costs.
• Taxes on labour should be kept low to support economic activity.
• Unilateral credit relief for foreign withholding tax on royalty payments should be extended to all trading companies.
• An overall foreign pooling system for foreign withholding tax on royalty payments should be introduced.
• A targeted tax incentive should be introduced to attract skilled persons into Ireland to meet short-term skills gaps.