* County Roscommon had the highest rate of convictions [for tax offences], where the number of cases per 100,000 of population was 671.
* Almost ten times higher than the lowest in Kilkenny, where the rate was just 68 per 100,000.
* The construction sector had more than double the offenders of any other sector, and accounted for over a third of all the convictions.
* Farmers accounted for the biggest number of tax convictions. They made up 10.4% of the Revenue list, followed by company directors (4.7%), builders (3.5%) and building contractors (3.2%).
Some of the results [more at link below] of an RTÉ Investigations Unit analysis using 13 years of official Revenue figures of “recorded convictions in the period 2002 to 2014 for certain types of tax offences”.
This caught my attention in Maynooth Co.Kildare and I had to share it because it seems so unusual. Is it just me or is this a little sign of frustration?
Ryan Ellis (left) of the Americans for Tax Reform making the case for Ireland being a poster child for low corporate taxation.
Our corporate tax rates aren’t low.
The US tax rates are too high.
Or something.
A presentation in Dublin on international tax and Ireland by free market lobbyists Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) chaired by Eamon Delaney – urging Ireland to resist EU tax harmonisation, keep our 12.5 per cent (and usually a lot less) corporation tax rate.
Eamon writes:
The ATR philosophy is quite specific and for many even provocative : that companies are being over taxed generally, especially in the US, thus driving them overseas and creating phenomena like inversion and the double Irish and the Luxembourg situation….
In an interview with the Observer, the Irish singer says his country’s controversial policies – which help multinational companies avoid billions in tax – have “brought our country the only prosperity we’ve known”.
The 54-year-old says that Ireland’s economy is dependent on attracting multinational companies – including Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon – with tax avoidance strategies, including a loophole dubbed the “Double Irish”, the use of two Irish companies to lower the effective tax rate.
Bono said: “We are a tiny little country, we don’t have scale, and our version of scale is to be innovative and to be clever, and tax competitiveness has brought our country the only prosperity we’ve known.
“That’s how we got these companies here … We don’t have natural resources, we have to be able to attract people.”
Bono, who describes himself as a “natural social democrat”, said Ireland had benefited from “more hospitals and firemen and teachers because of [our tax] policies”.
A preliminary finding by the European Commission has found that Ireland provided illegal state aid to tech giant Apple for more than 20 years. It said it has doubts that two “sweetheart” tax deals agreed in 1991 and 2007 between Apple and Ireland are compatible with the internal market of the European Union.
In a statement, the European Commission said: “Accordingly, the commission is of the opinion that through those rulings the Irish authorities confer an advantage on Apple. That advantage is obtained every year and ongoing. At this stage, the commission has no indication that the contested measure can be considered compatible with the internal market”. It added: “The commission’s preliminary view is that the tax ruling of 1991 and of 2007 in favour of the Apple group constitute state aid.”
The Irish government has already responded and said: “As this is an ongoing legal process, Ireland will not be commenting further on any individual aspects of this case.”
Read the European Commission’s decision in full here
Apple will be accused of prospering from illegal tax deals with the Irish government for more than two decades when Brussels this week unveils details of a probe that could leave the iPhone maker with a record fine of as much as several billions of euros.
Preliminary findings from the European Commission’s investigation into Apple’s tax affairs in Ireland, where it has had a rate of less than 2 per cent, claim the Silicon Valley company benefited from illicit state aid after striking backroom deals with Ireland’s authorities, according to people involved in the case.
“We were simply trying to understand what was the right amount of taxes that we would have to pay in Ireland,” Mr Maestri said of the agreements, describing Apple’s approach as “very responsible, transparent and prudent”.
Legal curbs on state aid to companies are unique to the EU and Brussels has far-reaching powers to recover illegal support stretching back 10 years. While the commission has not yet made a precise calculation of improper support, it is expected to reach billions of euros. The accusation that Apple rode to riches totalling $137.7bn in offshore cash with the help of the Irish taxpayer will come as a blow to a company that has striven to burnish its image of corporate social responsibility in recent years.
An English establishment pet monkey Irishman who, as a registered ‘non dom’, uses a tax loophole to avoid paying tax in Britain gushes about the greatness of Britain.
FIGHT!
Sez Bob:
“Glasgow was one of the first places where we could get a gig when people in London wouldn’t look at us.”
“It was the people of Scotland who bought our records, which got us up the charts.”
“You two guys (England and Scotland) invented the modern world. Why go back from that?” Geldof said.
“Remember I’m Irish but it was the UK which gave me my life. The people inside this political nation are truly extraordinary.
“The English are an amazing people. Their history is just f**ing amazing.
“But it took the Scottish nation’s genius – and literally that is the word – to invent the modern world. That’s the truth of it.”
“The logic of the 21st century and immediate future is towards co-operation, consensus and compromise, as opposed to the past and the murderous 20th century which was defined by competition. Why retreat into the past? Why regress to an imagined national idyll? It won’t happen.
“What interest does the world have in Scotland or England unilaterally? The nation state is dead. The 21st century is about interdependence.”
“Things are always bigger than we are. Therefore the bigger we are, the better it is. Isn’t that what we learned from our labour struggles? Isn’t that what we learned from our wars? Isn’t that what we learned from football and families? That’s the way it just is. It’s not me just inventing it.”
“It’s a very healthy sense to understand who you are as a people and your place in this world. That’s a normal human instinct. We have a word for it – it’s called patriotism. But when it’s manipulated into the base metal of politics, which is nationalism – when political people on both sides of the argument do that – you have to be very wary. You really must think through these things.
“Nationalism is a very dangerous political animal. I know this – I’m Irish. It’s a cheap political trick which twists the understanding of who we are.
“I completely understand the emotional impulse towards independence. But always consider independence in inverted commas because what the f*** does it mean?
“We are entirely dependent on one another. None of us, in our private lives or our political constructs, are ever independent.
“We are all sovereign unto ourselves but we’re dependent on one another.”
“You think you guys are p***ed off with Westminster? What do you think it’s like living in London? Fupping Londoners are pissed off with Westminster. The world is changing and needs different institutions, but not just removing ourselves from each other.
“Actually co-operating with each other – that excites me. That interests me more than the f***ing bagpipe playing. That sort of stuff drives me nuts in Ireland as well.”
“We [Ireland] were an occupied country for 700 f***ing years.
“We were never allowed to industrialise. You guys had the very opposite. You guys chose – very Scottish, very practical – you saw the way to utilise your genius was by joining up, together. F*** me did you do it – and ran the f***ing show and still do.
“Look what you did. The NHS – Beveridge’s dad was Scottish. Blair and Brown brought in the minimum wage. The actual benefits of this country are actually only derived by cooperation together.”
“Look at Ireland within the Euro. F***ed up. Completely f***ed up.”
“There’s going to be an independent Scotland and a united Ireland and it will all be great? What will be great about it? Please explain that to me. Do you have any less pride in being Scottish or Irish than you will have next week? Seriously? It’s the manipulation of that pride and spurious arguments like that which drives me nuts.”
‘Our time is now’ – what the f**k does that mean? The time is any time.”
Bob was asked about his tax affairs by The Times’ Lucy Bannerman at the World Economic Forum in Addis Ababa in 2012:
So how much is he worth? “I’m not telling you. But I am rich, let’s be clear.”
Can he understand why some might get annoyed when rich rock stars campaign about poverty?
He explodes with rage. “I pay all my taxes. My time? Is that not a tax? I employ 500 people [through his production companies]. I have created business for the UK government. I have given my ideas. I have given half my life to this. How dare you lecture me about morals?”
Research by Dr Michael Collins of the Nevin Economic Research Institute finds the poorest 10% pay just over 30% of their income in taxes.This is mostly in the form of indirect taxes levied on the things they spend money on. Meanwhile, the top 10% spend 29.5% of their income on tax – mostly in the form of direct income tax. The combined tax burden produces a u-shaped graph, with the bottom and top of the income distribution paying most, and those on lower middle incomes paying least.
