Spare a thought for poor old Ireland. Take away tax avoidance and they’ll hardly have an economy left.
More seriously, this is why the rationalisation of ‘countries wishing to strengthen their revenues’ doesn’t work. Ireland et al running these low corporate tax regimes is what has (in part) powered the recovery of their tax revenues in the years since the financial crisis. Of course, it won’t be good for them if they are subject to some form of sanction (although what that would be I don’t know), but it isn’t in their interest to shift to a higher tax regime. This is where the reality of taxation being a zero sum game played for national interests come into play; what is good for Ireland is bad for the United States, and vice versa, and there’s no getting around that.
Ireland has plenty of capable, college-educated people and is a member of a massive single market via the EU.
Can they not find something productive to do with themselves besides operating what amount to glorified post office boxes for American technology and pharmaceutical companies?
