US Congress, not us, blocking tax reform

In the course of a strong attack on American businesses suspected of moving off shore to avoid taxes, US president Barrack Obama specifically mentioned Ireland as one of the havens during a television interview on the business network CNBC on Thursday.

He was specifically targeting what the Americans call ‘tax inversion’, which allows an American company to merge with an offshore company and then benefit from the tax regime in the foreign country.

In recent years, Ireland has been identified as one of the more popular destinations for American companies in search of foreign acquisitions, because the Irish corporation tax rate of 12.5% is almost one third of the rate in the US.