‘€88bn shifted through Ireland’ by US multinationals

US multinationals shifted $100bn (€88bn) in income to Ireland in a single year, in order to lower their tax bills, a new study shows.

The total amount of gross income posted by US firms and their subsidiaries in Ireland in 2012 was $122.3bn, according to the study commissioned by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

However, economics professor Kimberly A Clausing, an expert on multinationals and corporate tax, estimated just $23bn of that total would have been posted by the companies in Ireland if there had been no shifting of income to the Irish arms and subsidiaries.