’Double Irish’ tax loophole scrapped

The Government will phase out the "double Irish" tax loophole over the next five years for companies based in Ireland and from January for new firms.

Speaking to journalists following the release of the budget, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the decision to scrap the tax mechanism on a unilateral basis was prompted by the need to create certainty for investors.

The OECD has under-taken the base erosion and profit-shifting project which is aimed at eliminating aggressive tax planning by multinationals. The double Irish was a vital cog in this type of tax planning that helped the tech giant Apple reduce its effective corporate tax rate to 2%.