Irish Revenue released their Annual Report in May 2022 which offers details on its dispute resolution activities during the year ended 31 December 2021 – namely, statistics in relation to transfer pricing audits, Advanced Pricing Agreements (APAs) and Mutual Agreement Procedures (MAPs) as well as information on Country-by-Country reporting.

Audits

Irish Revenue continue to put a greater emphasis on transfer pricing audits through formal transfer pricing audits as well as other interventions outside of a formal audit (i.e., transfer pricing compliance reviews and aspect queries).

From 2015 up to the end of 2021, there were a total of 42 transfer pricing compliance interventions. While 23 of the 42 TP compliance interventions are currently considered to be open, 19 of them have been finalised resulting in a yield of €435.3 million and a restriction in trading losses of €196 million (tax effect of approximately €24.5 million).

Irish Revenue has also issued amended corporate tax assessments following transfer pricing compliance interventions, with total underpaid corporation tax of €74 million. The majority of these tax assessments are under appeal at present with the Tax Appeals Commissioner.

Furthermore, audit activity is also expected to increase with a new code of practice governing how Irish Revenue conducts audits, with the new code limiting the opportunities around certain types of disclosures.

APAs

During 2021, Irish Revenue received 11 APA requests (down from 22 in 2020). Irish Revenue agreed and completed 3 bilateral APAs during 2021 (down from 5 in 2020) and 1 APA request was withdrawn by the taxpayer.

See below table for a complete breakdown.

MAPs

During 2021, Irish Revenue saw a large increase in MAPs from the prior year, with the increase coming from non-transfer pricing cases. Transfer pricing cases remained relatively stable, with 17 cases completed during the year and leaving the closing inventory at 86 cases.

Irish Revenue also received an award from the OECD as “most improved jurisdiction” for the greatest year-on-year increase in cases closed in 2020 with unilateral relief or full agreement achieved.

CBCr

Irish Revenue is also involved in sharing CBCR data relating to groups which file in Ireland. During 2021, Ireland exchanged CbC data with 64 jurisdictions.