The worst fears of the business owners and the tens of thousands of people they employed in cafes and the pubs and restaurants and retailers were realised as the shutters came down 10 days ago.

It is startling the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic has changed the ground rules for business, writes Brian Keegan.

Irish economic growth will grind to a halt and unemployment will creep above 5% this year under Italy-style quarantines to control the Covid-19 outbreak here, the Economic and Social Research Institute has projected in new forecasts.

Nature abhors a vacuum.

Knowing how to measure sustainability will make a real impact in addressing environmental concerns.

Last December’s UK general election was really only about one thing: Brexit.

The month of January isn’t particularly noted as a time for good news.

It isn’t just the end of the year, it’s the end of a decade.

On or around December 9 almost all employees can expect to receive a letter from Revenue.

The new rules for disclosing ownership offshore trusts, shell companies, nominees, and numbered bank accounts show that the authorities are getting serious. Discretion is no longer assured in financial dealings.

Food supplements — with a range of exceptions — will, after all, be taxed at the rate of 13.5% for Vat, the Department of Finance has said, a move that has surprised industry groups that had long campaigned against removing their zero-rated tax benefits.

Rarely have expectations been so dampened down in advance of a budget statement.

This week the British Home Office announced it is to issue one million texts to UK passport holders.

It's safe to say €137.5bn is a very large sum of money. It’s an amount you’d think it would be difficult to mislay.

Last week, across the water, Boris Johnson was elected leader of the Tory party and hence Prime Minister on a Brexit ticket.

Confirmation that Boris Johnson was heading to Downing Street was greeted by a fall in sterling — and a new round of warnings for Irish business to buckle up for a rough ride.

It may be easier to say what a developed country is rather than what a developing country is.

Recently the US economist Arthur Laffer was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Trump.

While tax is ultimately all about paying money, a critical element of tax collection is the communication between the taxpayer and the Revenue Commissioners to ensure the right amount is paid at the right time.

The Government appears to be drawing closer to formally conceding the tech giants, including Google, Twitter, and Facebook, which have significant bases in Ireland will be taxed by individual governments on the revenues they generate across Europe.

There is an African proverb that says that when elephants fight, the grass is hit the hardest.

In the past few weeks we have seen both the threat, and then the deferral, of two taxes. Though very different in appearance, were either primarily designed to raise money?

So that’s nearly Sunday evening wrapped up. Here’s some of the stories we published on irishexaminer.com today which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

This paper has reported that Cork City Council has been audited by the Revenue Commissioners and made a settlement of well in excess of €1m for underpaid taxes.

The theatre of the last few weeks in Westminster has meant that all our attention has been focused east across the Irish Sea. But that begs the question as to whether we should be looking west rather than east.

Countries ‘missing’ 15% of economic activity on average

Preparations for a cliff edge outcome of the UK crashing out of the EU in March would lead to the policing of the Irish border as if it were the Polish-Russia frontier.

The town of Roth in Germany had a nice tradition of asking children to hang messages for Santa on the town’s Christmas tree, writes Brian Keegan

Tax breaks to encourage activity in a particular area or sector can be highly successful.

The Brexit concerns of Northern Ireland are of far more consequence than mere trade and industry.

These are the critical days for individuals to file their tax returns to Revenue.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe moved to shore up the short-term lettings incentive so home-owners using Airbnb and other tourism rental platforms do not benefit from the tax exemption granted under the existing rent-a-room relief.

Central Bank governor Philip Lane has proposed that the Government back a revamped Special Savings Incentive Account (SSIA) scheme, more than 17 years after former finance minister Charlie McCreevy presided over a widely criticised €16bn scheme to encourage savers to set aside money on a regular basis.

The focus on tax policy over the years has changed. From the 1980s, the favoured sector was property, with tax breaks for purchases, investments, and sales in the form of things like mortgage interest relief, preferential rates of stamp duty, allowances against rental income and capital gains tax exemptions.

Irish firms will face numerous challenges even under the softest of Brexit deals, the director of public policy and taxation at Chartered Accountants Ireland has warned.