For the massive industry of Irish analysts, economists and experts working hard on denying that there is a problem with our corporation tax regime, behold this view: "Ireland ... is one of the world’s most important tax havens or offshore financial centres."
And as I noted on numerous occasions, our beggar-thy-neighbours policy or strategy for economic development is no longer a matter of esoteric academic considerations: "It is true that the tax offering did help attract large amounts of investment, ...and European membership helped keep Ireland off tax haven blacklists that apply to classic tax havens such as Cayman and Bermuda... ...What is more, Ireland has triggered ‘beggar my neighbour’ competition from other nations, meaning it has to constantly offer new and larger subsidies to mobile capital, just to keep up. ... [Ireland's] corporate tax haven strategy (and the financial centre strategy, below) have transmitted harmful spillover effects onto other countries, notably the U.S. which has seen Ireland help facilitate a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary taxpayers to mostly wealthy shareholders."
Read the full report here: http://www.taxjustice.net/2015/11/11/how-ireland-became-an-offshore-financial-centre/. And prepare for a choir of deniers to start their song again tomorrow, aided and funded by the lobby groups and, in some cases, by the state.
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