Hacker News Reader

What portion of Ireland's GDP is "American multinational companies" using them for tax avoidance?

As long as it is legal for Apple to route the money it makes in America back to shell companies in Ireland and pay 12.5% corporate tax instead of something higher elsewhere, why would it ever stop?

Around 23% in 2020, based on the difference between GNI* and GDP. It has been higher than that in the past, but increased medical manufacturing pushed it back. It's not just American companies, but they're certainly the largest. The most notable effect here is that you learn to be wary of any stat mentioning "GDP" or "GDP per capita".

In 2015, when the US cut-off date for many of these transfers hit, the CSO refused to release accurate corporate tax numbers because it would have identified the companies involved.

That's the way countries should behave generally.

Countries set the bar for human rights, morale and ethics. What if they don’t matter if some provides the money?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com