Full coverage: Tax

Ireland has become a global platform for multinationals to shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions under the form of interest. The resumption of international tax talks following Joe Biden’s election will put this role into question.

Over the past decade, the New York-headquartered global marketing intelligence giant used Irish companies to funnel multi-billion intercompany loans to its US business. The three Dublin-based vehicles have just gone into liquidation – but what have they achieved?

An accountant showed an average annual income of just €12,302 for ten years. Out of that, he managed to maintain a spouse, three privately educated school-going children and lived in a house complete with an indoor swimming pool which later sold for €10m.

When a politician gifted his ministerial pension to the state in the aftermath of the crisis, he claimed two corresponding tax benefits in a series of exchanges involving the finance minister, his department and Revenue. They were all wrong.

A new ruling details how the Tax Appeals Commission shot down emergency provisions introduced in Budget 2020 to tax share cancellations schemes. The appeals body is asserting far-reaching new powers, but Revenue is preparing its revenge in court.

The New York-listed pharmaceutical giant is involved with a judicial review of its tax affairs one year after a last-ditch Budget Day stamp duty change added hundreds of millions to the cost of its Allergan acquisition.

A few years ago, the owners of Copper Face Jacks challenged the rateable value of their Harcourt Street premises before the Valuation Tribunal. This time, they are taking the Commissioner of Valuation to the High Court.

New documents prepared by the online questionnaire firm in Dublin provide a rare level of detail in the relocation of intellectual property to Ireland common to countless tech multinationals. Meanwhile, the more discreet Mentor Graphics is preparing to repatriate billions out of Shannon.

Faced with opposition questions on the latest tax-free profits reported by some debt vehicles, the finance minister defended the principle of securitisation. The real issues, however, are how useful it actually is, and how much of a tax advantage it enjoys.

For the past four years, vehicles established in Ireland to hoover up debt secured on Irish property have been banned from paying tax-free profit-participating interest. New accounts show how this rule has applied to portfolios sold by Nama and Ulster Bank.