The poverty charity Oxfam has described Ireland as one of the worst corporate tax shelters in the world. The report slams Ireland for not having adequate rules to prevent corporate tax dodging and for widely facilitating large-scale corporate tax avoidance.
Oxfam puts Ireland on par with Bermuda and the Cayman Islands when it comes to helping big business dodge taxes.
“Around the world, we are known as a country of good fun, bad weather and awful tax policies that facilitate worsening inequality by allowing some of the world’s richest companies to avoid paying their fair share to society. This is no badge of honor,” said Jim Clarken, CEO of Oxfam Ireland
Ireland is part of a toxic global tax system servicing the very wealthiest while ordinary people pay the price and lose out on essential public services, according to Clarken.
“From a national, European and international perspective, the game is up. Citizens everywhere have had enough. We need to get serious about making companies pay the tax that’s due and we need transparency about where and how profits are made and where and how they are taxed. We collect more detailed data about farm animals in this country than we do about the tax affairs of multinationals,” the CEO stressed.
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Ireland is the six in a list of 15 countries lowering corporate tax rates and indulging “extreme forms of tax dodging” to attract investment, according to Oxfam.
Bermuda tops the list, followed by the Cayman Islands and the Netherlands.
Switzerland and Singapore were ranked in fourth and fifth place with Luxembourg, Curacao, Hong Kong and Cyprus completing the top ten.
The final five were the Bahamas, Jersey, Barbados, Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands.