Full coverage: Tax

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.

Twitter is the latest multinational to reveal a multi-billion intellectual property onshoring in Ireland, suppressing its tax liability here in the process. The company and its rival Facebook are also bracing for the first significant data protection fines under GDPR.

Following an appeal against the Criminal Assets Bureau, an Irish national who makes a living travelling the world to buy and sell collectable coins has now challenged tax residency claims made by two successive countries.

The social media giant is shutting down its Cayman-resident, Irish-registered holding structure after routing over $40 billion through the low-tax scheme over the past decade. It is not yet clear what role Ireland will play in the group's new corporate arrangements.

Availed of by 66,000 firms, the €2.8bn wage subsidy scheme has been the cornerstone of the government’s economic response to Covid-19. However, Revenue has identified abuses including payroll manipulation and turnover suppression.

Thousands of farmers in the co-op at the origin of Kerry Group were targeted by the tax authority over the status of so-called patronage shares. A new landmark case has revealed how the probe came unstuck.

In a new unified set of proposals, 137 countries have narrowed down the rulebook that will reallocate tax paid by global firms towards those countries where they really make profits. This would mean lower corporation tax receipts for Ireland – yet a number of key pieces are still missing in the puzzle, awaiting political agreement put on ice by Donald Trump this year.

The State has the immediate means to support those businesses and workers most affected by the pandemic, but next month’s budget also needs to address where resources and debt repayments will come from in the medium term.