We’re rich, although our Taoiseach is not one bit happy about it.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says that Ireland will start collecting the €13bn owed to it in taxes by Apple, although he is still disputing a ruling by the European Commission that the tech giant received preferential treatment from the Irish government.
Speaking to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Varadkar said: “We will collect it. What we had to do in order to collect it was set up an escrow account. That’s been established now and we anticipate collecting money in Q2 this year, so we will collect the money, but we are absolutely disputing the case.”
Varadkar, who believes Ireland can prove there was no preferential deal with Apple, is keen not to discourage future foreign investment and protect our corporation tax rate of just 12.5%.
He says the whole affair has damaged Ireland’s reputation with potential overseas investors, particularly in light of Donald Trump’s own corporate tax rate cut.
“It hasn’t been helpful. Ireland is a country that has a very clear tax policy, we’ve had it for a very long time now, the corporate tax rate is 12.5%, it’s not going up, it’s not going down, and unlike quite a lot of other countries there are very few get out clauses, exceptions or credits.
“Other countries have a higher tax rate on paper, but actually they collect less, and the OECD figures prove that,” he said.
Varadkar added: “We’re really one of the most transparent countries when it comes to tax.”
The Taoiseach insists that, in the long run, Ireland will not be affected by the US tax cut.
“What we offer that other countries don’t is that absolute certainty of four major political parties in Ireland that support that [tax] policy,” he concluded.
“When it comes to investors they can get that kind of certainty that they just couldn’t get in countries where politics can swing so much left to right.”
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