Only 36% of people trust multinational companies to provide accurate tax information, while 70% believe multinational tax avoidance schemes to be morally wrong even if they are legal according to a new RED C survey, conducted on behalf of the charity Christian Aid.
According to the poll, Ireland’s international reputation also suffers as a consequence of our tax policy with less than 30% of people believing Ireland’s international standing is unaffected by our tax policy.
Over three quarters (76%) of people believe that greater transparency around the activities of multinationals would be useful in determining whether they are paying the correct amount of tax.
Head of Advocacy at Christian Aid, Sorley McCaughey commented, "We think the findings are fairly damning of the tax practices of multinationals, although not surprising.
"Scandals like Lux Leaks demonstrate that while PAYE workers, and Small and Medium Enterprises pay top rates of tax, some multinationals get away with paying next to nothing. What galls people is that Irish tax policy has been key to multinationals successfully avoiding the payment of vast sums of tax.
"What makes matters considerably worse, is that these same schemes in which Ireland is a key player is almost certainly depriving developing countries of millions of euros in taxable revenue that should be spent on essential services like health and education."
Source: www.businessworld.ie