Liechtenstein on the Liffey

Another excellent article in the Guardian Series as previously mentioned by Cactus

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/10/ireland-tax-gap-staff-levels

Quote :

The latest ploy by big businesses anxious to avoid UK tax, is to claim that they have changed residence to low-tax Ireland. But when the Guardian went in search of new company headquarters on the Liffey, we found there sometimes seemed to be a touch of blarney involved in the claims.In Dublin, one such "headquarters" turned out to be merely the premises of the company's accountants. Other multi-nationals had just a handful of staff at work, no nameplates outside, or occupied the premises only sporadically...............

Times are a changing folks - its time to seriously re-look at this Corporation Tax rate of 12.5 % and those who qualify for it - more than anything - it is seriously pissing off our main trading partners and is not bringing a great deal of employment into the country - all the big employers and our big Multi-national exporters were in place here well before this tax rate came in 1997-98 - its not the be all and end all for them. The US,over the next few years will be seriously clamping down on this kind of thing and I can see a global linkup on the lines of Bretton woods etc etc to regulate the financial industry who are the ones who really benefited from this kind of thing.

like a lot of PD ideology - this is not sacrosant and should not be a fundemental corner of a viable sustainable export industry that we will need to power this country after the current madness and hysteria ends - its ending maybe the cost of remaining within the Euro Zone

Time to choose folks - do we really want to be known as the centre of cowboy dodgy capital dealings in the West? - even Switzerland has a much better regulated and more diversified economy than we have

Quote :

Migrating companies do not even need to submit to Irish company law. Firms such as WPP have technically re-incorporated themselves as offshore entities in Jersey, in the Channel islands, as part of their move. Tax experts say this use of a tax haven saves the cost of stamp duty.

Dublin's heavily-advertised 12.5% low rate of corporation tax is not the real reason for company flight, taxation experts say. Subsidiaries which remain in the UK in any case continue to be taxed in Britain.

What is crucial, especially for firms which hold "intellectual property" such as patents or brands offshore, is that they can take advantage of Ireland's lack of rules on taxing the profits of multinationals' offshore operations.

This bit caught my eye Edo. I was listening to the CEO of Mainstream Wind energy, Eddie O'Connor on the Business Programme and he mentioned this, quickly in passing, as being the only reason he was based in Ireland.

What is the difference, I ask myself between a "subsidiary" and an "off shore operation"?
I find that hard to believe that the latter does not have to pay any tax...

The more I look at the shenanigans in the Financial sector - the more I think that the Government simply told the financial sector to write whatever rules suited themselves - we have more loopholes than the average net of a deep sea tuna trawler.

Write your own rules lads - as long as we get a small cut (12.5%? and jobs are created) - they defaulted on both - Same could be said for the US and the UK aswell tho - only the staid and boring Germans took the time to seriously police and chase after these tax dodgers.

This offshore thingy in relation to intellectual property - I have been a victim of this - my ex-employers divided the company (of 250 folks max) into 5 seperate companies - when we went to the wall - the company I worked for was found to only have been used as an expense account - to pay the bills with cash infusions from the other entities incorporated elsewhere -all the sales were pushed thru another offshore company - all the intellectual property that we had accumulated thru R/D and which would have made a tidy sum and more importantly would have paid the outstanding sums owed to me ,was in the name of the offshore entities - under Irish law I cannot sue or sue to liquidate this company - thus resulting in me not getting a bean.

From what people say here, Germany has major leakage into Switzerland and they are kicking up about it. States that are in deficit are not prepared to let this go quietly any more.

I agree with you that these tax avoidance systems do more harm than good, although there are times when new, small, young economies need to use any advantages they can to get a toe hold.

That business of the company you worked for seems to have been a real stinker.

Whilst agreeing in part with the sentiments, the Guardian also has an agenda in that article and it is using the facts to suit itself. It is normal practice for a business to have its listed company address as its solicitor or accountants. I have worked in both solicitors and accountancy firms where literally hundreds of companies have their registered office. This is because you pay your solicitors and accountants to deal with your paper work.

As I said, I'm not disagreeing with the sentiments. Ireland is used as an offshore location. But they would want to write a better article on it because their main point, misses the point.