The industry body which represents the accountancy sector says it is concerned that advocates of the Lisbon No campaign are causing confusion in relation to Irish tax policy.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) says the treaty does not affect Ireland’s tax sovereignty as some have suggested.
“There are those who seem to believe that there is an EU wide conspiracy to compel Ireland to take part in the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB),” it claimed.
“But, if that is the case, why are they campaigning against a Treaty that confirms our tax veto,” it questioned.
EU tax commissioner Laszlo Kovacs says he plans to publish the proposals in the autumn.
Ireland and several other member states have already voiced opposition to it, arguing that it would inevitably lead to harmonised tax rates and undermine tax competition.
The ICAI insisted the treaty had no bearing on the proposals which it said could not be imposed on Ireland regardless of how the country voted.
The institute said it had been campaigning against the CCCTB since its inception.
“Far from furthering the CCCTB, a Yes vote for Lisbon will help us campaign against it,” it said.
The ICAI’s statement comes in the wake of a pledge by the anti-Lisbon Treaty group Libertas to put claims that a Yes vote would jeopardise Ireland’s corporate tax regime at the front of its campaign.
Libertas chairman Declan Ganley claimed over the weekend a Yes vote would put Ireland’s tax competitiveness in “a very tenuous position”.
But he also conceded that moves towards the introduction of a common consolidated corporate tax base could progress even if the Lisbon Treaty is rejected.
