It’s a curious fact that being a tax haven is becoming counter productive.
Ireland is a tax haven. It pioneered ring fences in the Shannon Free Zone, used tax to lure business to its shores and now offers the lowest corporate tax rate amongst the major economies in the EU. But all that it has succeeded [...]
Irish Finance minister Brian Cowen is reported to have told Irish employers:
that is committed to maintaining Ireland’s 12.5pc corporation tax - a key component in the nation’s inward investment success - in the face of EU efforts to introduce tax harmonisation or a minimum rate of corporation tax.
But the story is itself laden with misinformation. [...]
Ken Griffin, one of Ireland’s best journalists, had an article in the Sunday Tribune this weekend looking at the tax affairs of two Adobe companies based in the Republic:
US SOFTWARE company Adobe’s two Irish subsidiaries had a combined turnover of $2.6bn ( 1.83bn) last year yet paid just $5m ( 3.5m) in Irish corporation tax, [...]
The US is targeting the biggest tax havens in the world. The FT reports that:
A pledge by Democrats in Congress to crack down on tax avoidance and to pay for spending measures as they are approved has put the practices of a range of international companies under the spotlight.
“These multinationals avoid US taxation on their [...]
John Redwood wrote a fevered article in the Telegraph today complaining no one has taken his message on the economy seriously, for which he blames the BBC. It was ever thus in the case of a person who has no argument to present.
But there in the middle of the story was a paragraph that stood [...]
Toronto’s Globe and Mail had a good article on social inequality in Ireland yesterday. It’s big issue, but the bit of the report I really liked was this:
A study published by Trinity College, Dublin economists last year pointed to the Republic’s dependence on investment by foreign manufacturers. The rapid transformation of the Irish economy from [...]
I’m a bit late in drawing attention to this - but holidays sometimes interrupt the best laid plans, and Sheila Killian’s article in the July edition of The Village in Ireland is well worth reading. She addresses the problems Ireland has caused for itself by behaving like a developing nation using tax haven rules to [...]
I missed this one whilst away: Geldof plays the tax market in the same way that Bono does. In his case he’s using his non-domicile status to avoid UK capital gains tax, inheritance tax and stamp duty by registering ownership of his UK properties through British Virgin Island companies. The full story is here.
This is [...]
Some welcome news from the FT:
Plans by Northern Ireland’s new power-sharing executive to stimulate foreign investment by cutting corporation tax have been dashed.
In meetings with local politicians and business leaders last week Sir David Varney, a former head of the UK Inland Revenue appointed by Gordon Brown to consider changes in the province’s tax policy, [...]
This week Jersey has tried to be all thing to all people. First it tells the US Senate how compliant its finance industry. Then it bangs it’s drum about winning the ‘Offshore Finance Centre of the Year Award’. Look at this stuff from the associated press release:
In winning the prestigious award, Jersey beat off competition [...]
