Suggestions that an EU enforced increase in the Irish corporate tax rate could lead to aircraft lessors switching their operations from Dublin to London dismissed as "wildly speculative"
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1st July 2016: Suggestions that an EU enforced increase in the Irish corporate tax rate, coupled with a cut in corresponding UK rate, could lead to aircraft lessors switching their operations from Dublin to London dismissed as "wildly speculative". Brexit is unlikely to have a material impact on the aircraft leasing industry, according to Tom Woods, head of aviation finance and leasing at KPMG in Dublin. He told the Finance Dublin Brexit Centre that lessors had consistently shown that they have the potential to turn crisis into opportunities, with the skill sets needed to move out of economically stressed areas into areas of demand.
Woods described suggestions that an EU enforced increase in the Irish corprorate tax rate, coupled with a cut in corresponding UK rate, could lead to lessors switching their operations from Dublin to London as 'wildly speculative.'

An increase in the Irish rate was 'just not on the cards' he said. From a fiscal perspective it remained to be seen whether the UK would cut its tax rates and it was possible they could remain the same, or perhaps even rise, he said.

'It is still very early days to see exactly where the (Brexit) fall out may be, but lessors typically have very diversified portfolios so it should not have a material specific impact on them,' he said.

Were there to be broader economic contagion that might present some difficulties, he said. But he noted that there had been a strong influx of investors into the sector because they had seen it was capable of generating good returns in both good times and bad as well as the discipline required to manage through crises. Investors were also encouraged by the apparent resistance of the two main OEMs to putting additional aircraft into the system when demand is stressed.