Northern Ireland's corporate taxation 'needs harmonising'

News Article - 24 January 2007
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The Social Democratic and Labour Party of Northern Ireland has called for a greater harmonisation of corporation tax.

Businesses in the region presently pay a 30 per cent rate of tax compared with their Republic of Ireland counterparts who pay 12.5 per cent, News Letter reports.

Mark Durkan, the party's leader, is now calling for an alignment of the two tax systems after seeing "no encouraging signs from Gordon Brown or anyone else".

At the launch of the party's economic blueprint, Shaping an All-Island Economy, Mr Durkan's views were reinforced by Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien, who said: "It is not sustainable on a small island to have one part moving on driven by the private sector and low taxes while the other is held back because of the interests of London and the south-east."

Measures proposed by Mr Durkan included marketing the island as a whole to investors, creating cross-border economic zones to overcome deprivation in some border regions, developing strong strategic partnerships to better deliver public services and creating funds which would be open to bids from both the north and south.

This, he claimed, would "ensure not only we all get the best value for money as taxpayers, but that resources are targeted strategically where they are most needed and can make the biggest difference".

The country currently has comprehensive double taxation agreements with 44 countries, generally covering income tax, corporation tax and levies on capital gains.

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