International tax laws - Firm, unified approach is essential

As a skirmish between national governments and international corporations over tax avoidance becomes something far more intense Ireland finds itself in the crosshairs of the US Senate’s Permanent Committee of Investigations.

We are also the subject of considerable negative international commentary because we have come to be regarded as a Caymen Islands-style tax haven; one that protects corporate profits, again legally, at the expense of countries that feel cheated of tax revenues. Those countries, and their citizens, may recognise that we are very dependent on those corporations’ jobs but that will not, nor should it, soften their attitude on the primary issue.

A US Senate report, published on Monday, concluded that “since the early 1990s ... Ireland has calculated Apple’s taxable income in such a way as to produce an effective rate in the low single digits ... the rate has varied ... but since 2003 has been 2% or less”. One estimate suggests that it was as low as 0.05% in 2011.