Ireland’s tax system ranks as the most effective in the EU for paying business taxes and the fifth most effective in the world according to the PwC/World Bank Group report.

The report covers 190 countries worldwide and looks at all taxes paid by businesses using broad principles from PwC’s Total Tax Contribution Framework.

This means that Ireland’s tax system continues to be the most efficient in the EU in terms of bureaucracy and administrative burden when it comes to paying, filing, time spent and the amount of tax levied on businesses.

The survey further demonstrates that Ireland’s statutory headline rate on profits is broadly similar to the effective rate. The study uses a case study approach so that the same circumstances can be compared across a large number of companies.

For many EU countries, the statutory headline rate is significantly higher than the effective rate. When you take labour and other taxes into account, Ireland’s total tax rate on corporate profits is much lower (26%) when compared with other EU countries (EU average: 40.3%).

New additional global research undertaken this year finds that the interactions which companies around the world have with tax authorities after a tax return has been filed can, in some instances, be some of the most challenging.  The survey shows that Ireland scores well where filing is concerned.

Top 10 rankings for the EU countries on ease of paying taxes are: Ireland, Denmark, UK, Finland, San Marino, Latvia, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Netherlands and Estonia.

The top 10 worldwide economies for ease of paying taxes are: Joint first: Qatar and United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Ireland, Kuwait, Denmark, Singapore, Macedonia and the United Kingdom.

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