Tax

Michael Brennan: Warning signs and dead ends on the roadmap for tax reforms

Many of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare’s recommendations were derided by cabinet ministers last week, but privately there is an acceptance that some of the new proposals will have to be implemented, such is the need for more tax revenue in the coming decades

The commission was set up by Paschal Donohoe, the Minister for Finance, last year due to concerns that the country’s current tax take will not be enough to cope with future challenges

Niall Cody, the chair of the Revenue Commissioners, was quietly watching the unveiling of the new plan for the future of Ireland’s taxation system.

He was sitting at the back of the Seamus Heaney lecture hall in St Patrick’s College, the teacher training facility in Drumcondra in Dublin, as the key details of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare’s 500-page report were outlined.

Those details are effectively a roadmap for substantial changes to the country’s ...