Ireland has bowed to pressure from the US administration of President Joe Biden to increase its corporation tax from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent, shifting the country’s status as a haven for global companies.
The estimated loss to the country from revenue is about €2 billion ($2.3 billion) a year.
Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe announced the move after a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, where it was agreed the new tax rate would apply to companies with turnover in excess of €750 million ($865.8m).
Smaller businesses will still be taxed at the lower rate.
For decades, Ireland's tax rate attracted international corporations such as Google and Facebook, who stationed their European headquarters there.
But the government had come under increasing international pressure to sign up to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) deal on global tax reform.
The decision is a major win for the US, which has led calls for a global minimum tax rate of 15 per cent.
More than 1,500 companies in the Republic of Ireland are likely to be affected, as are 56 Irish multinational companies.
“The government has given approval today for Ireland to sign up to the political agreement at the OECD Inclusive Framework on a new tax framework to address the tax challenges of digitalisation,” Mr Donohoe said last night.
“We have secured the removal of ‘at least’ in the text,” he said.
“This will provide the critical certainty for government and industry, and will provide the long-term stability and certainty to business in the context of investment decisions.
“This 15 per cent rate will apply to 56 Irish multinationals employing approximately 100,000 people and 1,500 foreign-owned MNEs based in Ireland employing approximately 400,000 people.”
Earlier, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, or Tanaiste, said Ireland will be able to operate two tax rates if it agrees to sign up to the OECD deal on a global minimum corporate tax rate.
Leo Varadkar told the Dail – the lower house in the Irish legislature – that Ireland was given assurances it could continue to charge the 12.5 per cent tax rate to small and medium companies.
“The minister informed me today that we have received that assurance, that we can do that,” he said.
Mr Varadkar said existing estimates show Ireland could lose €2 billion a year in revenue from the change in corporate tax.
“That is only an estimate,” he said. “It’s based on certain assumptions which may or may not be correct.
“Our 12.5 per cent has been a huge success and is a really important part of our industrial policy.
“Over a quarter of a million people work in multinational companies in Ireland, we want to keep those jobs and the 100,000 or so indirect jobs that arise from those jobs.”
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
Winner: AF Al Moreeb, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm: Handicap | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
Winner: AF Makerah, Adrie de Vries, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Handicap | Dh80,000 | 2,200m
Winner: Hazeme, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roualle
6.30pm: Handicap | Dh85,000 | 2,200m
Winner: AF Yatroq, Brett Doyle, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Shadwell Farm for Private Owners Handicap | Dh70,000 | 2,200m
Winner: Nawwaf KB, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) | Dh100,000 | 1,600m
Winner: Treasured Times, Bernardo Pinheiro, Rashed Bouresly
1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List
James Mustich, Workman
Dr Graham's three goals
Short term
Establish logistics and systems needed to globally deploy vaccines
Intermediate term
Build biomedical workforces in low- and middle-income nations
Long term
A prototype pathogen approach for pandemic preparedness
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key recommendations
- Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
- Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
- Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
- More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Five hymns the crowds can join in
Papal Mass will begin at 10.30am at the Zayed Sports City Stadium on Tuesday
Some 17 hymns will be sung by a 120-strong UAE choir
Five hymns will be rehearsed with crowds on Tuesday morning before the Pope arrives at stadium
‘Christ be our Light’ as the entrance song
‘All that I am’ for the offertory or during the symbolic offering of gifts at the altar
‘Make me a Channel of your Peace’ and ‘Soul of my Saviour’ for the communion
‘Tell out my Soul’ as the final hymn after the blessings from the Pope
The choir will also sing the hymn ‘Legions of Heaven’ in Arabic as ‘Assakiroo Sama’
There are 15 Arabic speakers from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan in the choir that comprises residents from the Philippines, India, France, Italy, America, Netherlands, Armenia and Indonesia
The choir will be accompanied by a brass ensemble and an organ
They will practice for the first time at the stadium on the eve of the public mass on Monday evening
