Full coverage: Tax

The company singled out in the EU's €13bn state aid decision to illustrate global jostling for a slice of multinational taxation wants a unified set of rules. As its CEO Tim Cook picked up an award in Dublin this week, Thomas Hubert looks at how Apple does business in Ireland in the wake of shifting US and Irish legislation.

Despite various official investigations and Revenue warnings, the quantum of pension funds being transferred overseas peaked last year. Most went to tax-efficient structures in Malta.

In a new series, The Currency investigates the structures and tactics used by technology multinationals in Ireland. We are mapping their footprints, following the money trail and unlocking the trends. We begin by tracing Google’s network of 24 companies here – from revenues to dividends.

An Irish businessman challenged an assessment by the Revenue Commissioners on a hefty pension distribution, claiming that he was living in Malta and had no home available to him in Ireland.

Five Irish restaurants pulled down the shutters in the first two days of the year and experts say two a week could close this year. Yet, planning applications for new eateries continue to surge. Is it simply healthy competition, or have we reached peak restaurant?

Changes in last year’s budget meant that Henderson Park faced an unforeseen €65m tax hit on its €1.34bn acquisition of Green Reit. The London firm did not take it lying down.

There are many tax pitfalls for the unwary corporate globetrotters. Yet, the management of foreign subsidiaries is one of the few occasions where corporate governance and tax planning can assume equal importance.

Led by Germany, core EU countries are preparing to tax equity trading. Yet research shows that to reinforce financial stability, policy should instead encourage equity investment and tax debt.

The Currency’s new tax columnist Eoin O’Shea went through cases decided by the body dealing with taxpayer appeals against Revenue decisions, and was reminded of this verse by Robert Burns: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley.”

Dublin accountants Adrian Dunne and Michael Humphreys made substantial property investments during the Celtic Tiger era. Now they are fighting the Revenue Commissioners in the High Court over their boom time tax bills.