Debt and taxes

The EU and its members are losing billions in corporate tax revenues due to loopholes which see multinationals pay as little as 2%, writes Europe correspondent Ann Cahill

TAXES are for small people” is the growing trend in many countries, with the multinational corporations able to make use of a variety of legal loopholes to pay as little as 2% tax on multibillion-euro profits.

While there are no definite figures for how money is being lost to the exchequer, estimates suggest the shadow economy — those not paying tax they properly should — amounts to 20% of the EU’s GDP. Ireland is at the lower end of this scale, with the sixth smallest shadow economy last year, estimated at 12.8% of its GDP or roughly €14bn that is going untaxed.