AmCham calls for personal tax reform to help secure jobs

The American Chamber of Commerce wants the Government to set out a "clear roadmap" for the reform of personal taxation so that lost competitiveness can be restored. In an address to the chamber's members at its Spring lunch in Dublin today, its president Louise Phelan said establishing the right conditions for the creation and retention of jobs was the chief challenge faced by the group's members and by "Ireland Inc".

“Personal taxation is an important issue in this regard,” said Ms Phelan, who is vice president of global operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for PayPal.

“As employers of 115,000 people in Ireland, American Chamber member companies are very aware of the high burden of taxation on their employees,” Ms Phelan told the gathering.

She said the group was calling for personal taxation reform so that its members could support their most important asset - “our people”.

The American Chamber has identified the high marginal rate of personal taxation and the low entry point to that rate as “major barriers” to attracting and incentivising staff.

“Widening the tax bands would reduce the income tax burden on all PAYE workers and would stimulate badly-needed economic activity in the domestic market,” Ms Phelan said. She called on the Government to move on the issue “as soon as the public finances allow” and to set out a plan for reform in the next budget.

The gathering also heard from the Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore, who told the multinational-heavy group that the "aggressive tax planning" that has attracted substantial negative publicity for the Irish corporate tax system is "a global issue requiring a global coordinated response".

He claimed that the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project will offer the Republic “the potential to benefit from ... revisions to the international tax policy rules now under discussion”.