Eamon Quinn: Unpacking the G7 tax plan for multinationals reveals sting in tail for Ireland

(Left to right) EU's Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe, World Bank President David Malpass, Italy's Finance Minister Daniele Franco, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Canada's Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Managing Director of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva, Germany's Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Mathias Cormann, Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso.

It accounts for only 150 of many thousands of words in its communiqué, but the G7 agreement on Saturday afternoon on new ways to tax global multinationals has enormous implications for Ireland even as it remains unclear what those effects will be. 

The sting in the tail for Ireland is not the plan to set up a global minimum tax rate at at least 15% but in the way the G7 wants to go about applying the new tax rules for multinationals.