RTE in Ireland has reported: Accounts for Microsoft Ireland Research, an Irish subsidiary of the global software giant, show that the company paid just €460,000 in tax, on profits of more than €1.2 billion last year, by using provisions in Irish tax law to take its corporation tax bill down from €158m. Much of Microsoft’s
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It looks like Microsoft’s love affair with Ireland is fleeting. According to the Irish Independent (behind a registration wall) in the past two years Microsoft’s Irish subsidiary has paid dividends totalling €5bn to its Seattle-based parent. That’s despite making profits less than that at €2bn pre tax a year. The tax charge is running at
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I always get a little annoyed when those who suggest that commerce is the only way to create wealth ignore the fact that those companies that very often attract the highest publicity for being in the forefront of the entrepreneurial revolution get some of the biggest tax subsidies. Richard Branson’s Virgin is one such enterprise
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Over at AccountingWEB Rebecca Bennyworth has posted a thoughtful piece on whether tax practitioners have to exercise moral judgement in the course of their work. She has been slated for by some commentators, but I think her piece reflects the real confusion that exists in this area, and on which all the professional bodies (in
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Dennis Howlett’s comment on the Apple article below is too good to be hidden away in the comments section. He wrote: My iPod says: Designed in California, Assembled in China. I suppose we’ve now to add: Tax paid in Ireland. I think that’s a classic.

Apple Corp is joining Microsoft in re-registering its Irish subsidiaries as unlimited companies according to a report in the Irish Sunday Business Post online. The result is that the companies will not now have to put their accounts on public record. The consequence will be that no one will know how much profit Apple will
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In November last year the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft was saving as much as $500 million a year in tax by the use of an obscure Irish holding company called Round Island One Limited to collect almost all of its world wide revenues from outside the USA. I admit I was pleased to
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