This afternoon the Irish parliament, unusually, will debate the new Ireland-Ghana tax treaty. Green TDs have laid down this amendment @TaxJusticeAfric @martinhearson @profchristians 
Why does it matter? First, because @martinhearson's excellent quantitative work has shown that Ireland's existing tax treaties with developing countries restrict their taxing rights more, on average, than almost any other EU country martinhearson.wordpress.com/2018/09/27/the…
Second, because some provisions of the tax treaty are amongst the most restrictive provisions of Ghana's tax treaties. Such as royalties.
(Slashing royalty WHT to Ireland, incidentally, is a particular risk given Ireland's role as a royalties conduit)
Third, because the new IE-GH treaty, as it stands, contains none of the basic anti-abuse provisions that the OECD (including Ireland) have agreed as "minimum standards" to prevent tax treaty abuse
It was signed in Feb 2018, despite the Irish govt promising in 2017 that it would work bilaterally with all treaty partners to ensure that all its treaties contained these minimum standards.
Last week the Irish govt belatedly said it has written to Ghana to suggest adding these measures in a protocol - so why not wait until this is done to ratify the treaty, rather than having a treaty in force without these basic protections against abuse?
Fourth, because it may not have any effect on Irish investment in or trade with Ghana. The Irish govt insists in the Oireachtas that this is a key purpose and benefit of the new treaty oireachtas.ie/en/debates/deb…
Yet during the treaty negotiations, Irish DFAT officials were privately warning ministers there was no evidence for this; and that the treaty could do harm if it slashed WHT (which it does)
Indeed, without a tax treaty, the last available Ghanaian FDI statistics to the IMF say that Ireland has already become Ghana's largest source of inward FDI (raising the stakes further for revenue losses due to the new treaty)
And here is the conclusion of the quant study the Finance Dept itself commissioned in 2015 about the impact of Ireland's tax treaties with developing countries: no discernable impact on trade and investment. Somewhat different to the govt's statements. budget.gov.ie/Budgets/2016/D…
Green TDs have laid a moderate amendment this afternoon that will allow TDs to ratify the new treaty, but hold the govt to account on its promises to include anti-abuse rules, and use the proposed new anti-abuse protocol to offer Ghana a better deal if it wants. What's to lose?
@threadreaderapp unroll please
