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Double Irish arrangement
The Double Irish arrangement was a base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) corporate tax avoidance tool used mainly by United States multinationals since the late 1980s to avoid corporate taxation on non-US profits. (The US was one of a small number of countries that did not use a "territorial" tax system, and taxed corporations on all profits, no matter whether the profit was made outside the US or not, in contrast to "territorial" tax systems which tax only profits made within that country.) It was the largest tax avoidance tool in history. By 2010, it was shielding US$100 billion annually in US multinational foreign profits from taxation, and was the main tool by which US multinationals built up untaxed offshore reserves of US$1 trillion from 2004 to 2018. Traditionally, it was also used with the Dutch Sandwich BEPS tool; however, 2010 changes to tax laws in Ireland dispensed with this requirement.
Despite US knowledge of the Double Irish for a decade, it was the European Commission that in October 2014 forced Ireland to close the scheme, starting in January 2015. However, users of existing schemes, such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Pfizer, were given until January 2020 to close them. At the announcement of the closure, it was known that multinationals had replacement BEPS tools in Ireland, the Single Malt (2014), and Capital Allowances for Intangible Assets (CAIA) (2009):
US tax academics showed as long ago as 1994 that US multinational use of tax havens and BEPS tools had maximised long-term US Treasury receipts. They showed that multinationals from "territorial" tax systems, which all but a handful of countries follow, did not use BEPS tools, or tax havens, including those that had recently switched, such as Japan (2009), and the UK (2009–12). By 2018, tax academics showed US multinationals were the largest users of BEPS tools and Ireland was the largest global BEPS hub or tax haven. They showed that US multinationals represented the largest component of the Irish economy and that Ireland had failed to attract multinationals from "territorial" tax systems.
The United States switched to a "territorial" tax system in the December 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), causing American tax academics to forecast the demise of Irish BEPS tools and Ireland as an American corporate tax haven. However, by mid-2018, other tax academics, including the IMF, noted that technical flaws in the TCJA had increased the attractiveness of Ireland's BEPS tools, and the CAIA BEPS tool in particular, which post-TCJA, delivered a total effective tax rate (ETR) of 0–2.5% on profits that can be fully repatriated to the US without incurring any additional US taxation. In July 2018, one of Ireland's leading tax economists forecasted a "boom" in the use of the Irish CAIA BEPS tool as US multinationals close existing Double Irish BEPS schemes before the 2020 deadline.
The Double Irish is an IP–based BEPS tool. Under OECD rules, corporations with intellectual property (IP), which are mostly technology and life sciences firms, can turn this into an intangible asset (IA) on their balance sheet, and charge it out as a tax-deductible royalty payment to end-customers. Without such IP, if Microsoft charged a German end-customer $100, for Microsoft Office, a profit of about $95 (as the cost to Microsoft for copies of Microsoft Office is small) would be realised in Germany, and German tax would be payable on this profit. However, if Germany allows such an intangible asset, Microsoft can additionally charge Microsoft Germany $95 in IP royalty payments on each copy of Microsoft Office, reducing its German profits to zero. The $95 is paid to the entity in which the IP is legally housed. Microsoft would prefer to house this IP in a tax haven; however, higher-tax locations like Germany do not sign full tax treaties with tax havens, and would not accept the IP charged from a tax haven as deductible against German taxation. The Double Irish fixes this problem.
The Double Irish enables the IP to be charged-out from Ireland, which has a large global network of full bilateral tax treaties. The Double Irish enables the hypothetical $95, which was sent from Germany to Ireland, to be sent on to a tax haven such as Bermuda without incurring any Irish taxation. The techniques of using IP to relocate profits from higher-tax locations to low-tax locations are called base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) tools. There are many types of BEPS tools (e.g. Debt–based BEPS tools); however, IP–based BEPS tool are the largest group.
As with all Irish BEPS tools, the Irish subsidiary must conduct a "relevant trade" on the IP in Ireland. A "business plan" must be produced with Irish employment and salary levels that are acceptable to the Irish State during the period the BEPS tool is in operation. Despite these requirements, the effective tax rate (ETR) of the Double Irish is almost 0%, as the EU Commission discovered with Apple in 2016.
Most major US technology and life sciences multinationals have been identified as using the Double Irish. By 2010, US$95 billion of US profits were shifted annually to Ireland, which increased to US$106 billion by 2015. As the BEPS tool with which US multinationals built up untaxed offshore reserves of circa US$1 trillion from 2004 to 2017, the Double Irish is the largest tax avoidance tool in history. In 2016, when the EU levied a €13 billion fine on Apple, the largest tax fine in history, it only covered the period 2004–14, during which Apple shielded €111 billion in profits from U.S (and Irish) tax.
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Double Irish arrangement
The Double Irish arrangement was a base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) corporate tax avoidance tool used mainly by United States multinationals since the late 1980s to avoid corporate taxation on non-US profits. (The US was one of a small number of countries that did not use a "territorial" tax system, and taxed corporations on all profits, no matter whether the profit was made outside the US or not, in contrast to "territorial" tax systems which tax only profits made within that country.) It was the largest tax avoidance tool in history. By 2010, it was shielding US$100 billion annually in US multinational foreign profits from taxation, and was the main tool by which US multinationals built up untaxed offshore reserves of US$1 trillion from 2004 to 2018. Traditionally, it was also used with the Dutch Sandwich BEPS tool; however, 2010 changes to tax laws in Ireland dispensed with this requirement.
Despite US knowledge of the Double Irish for a decade, it was the European Commission that in October 2014 forced Ireland to close the scheme, starting in January 2015. However, users of existing schemes, such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Pfizer, were given until January 2020 to close them. At the announcement of the closure, it was known that multinationals had replacement BEPS tools in Ireland, the Single Malt (2014), and Capital Allowances for Intangible Assets (CAIA) (2009):
US tax academics showed as long ago as 1994 that US multinational use of tax havens and BEPS tools had maximised long-term US Treasury receipts. They showed that multinationals from "territorial" tax systems, which all but a handful of countries follow, did not use BEPS tools, or tax havens, including those that had recently switched, such as Japan (2009), and the UK (2009–12). By 2018, tax academics showed US multinationals were the largest users of BEPS tools and Ireland was the largest global BEPS hub or tax haven. They showed that US multinationals represented the largest component of the Irish economy and that Ireland had failed to attract multinationals from "territorial" tax systems.
The United States switched to a "territorial" tax system in the December 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), causing American tax academics to forecast the demise of Irish BEPS tools and Ireland as an American corporate tax haven. However, by mid-2018, other tax academics, including the IMF, noted that technical flaws in the TCJA had increased the attractiveness of Ireland's BEPS tools, and the CAIA BEPS tool in particular, which post-TCJA, delivered a total effective tax rate (ETR) of 0–2.5% on profits that can be fully repatriated to the US without incurring any additional US taxation. In July 2018, one of Ireland's leading tax economists forecasted a "boom" in the use of the Irish CAIA BEPS tool as US multinationals close existing Double Irish BEPS schemes before the 2020 deadline.
The Double Irish is an IP–based BEPS tool. Under OECD rules, corporations with intellectual property (IP), which are mostly technology and life sciences firms, can turn this into an intangible asset (IA) on their balance sheet, and charge it out as a tax-deductible royalty payment to end-customers. Without such IP, if Microsoft charged a German end-customer $100, for Microsoft Office, a profit of about $95 (as the cost to Microsoft for copies of Microsoft Office is small) would be realised in Germany, and German tax would be payable on this profit. However, if Germany allows such an intangible asset, Microsoft can additionally charge Microsoft Germany $95 in IP royalty payments on each copy of Microsoft Office, reducing its German profits to zero. The $95 is paid to the entity in which the IP is legally housed. Microsoft would prefer to house this IP in a tax haven; however, higher-tax locations like Germany do not sign full tax treaties with tax havens, and would not accept the IP charged from a tax haven as deductible against German taxation. The Double Irish fixes this problem.
The Double Irish enables the IP to be charged-out from Ireland, which has a large global network of full bilateral tax treaties. The Double Irish enables the hypothetical $95, which was sent from Germany to Ireland, to be sent on to a tax haven such as Bermuda without incurring any Irish taxation. The techniques of using IP to relocate profits from higher-tax locations to low-tax locations are called base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) tools. There are many types of BEPS tools (e.g. Debt–based BEPS tools); however, IP–based BEPS tool are the largest group.
As with all Irish BEPS tools, the Irish subsidiary must conduct a "relevant trade" on the IP in Ireland. A "business plan" must be produced with Irish employment and salary levels that are acceptable to the Irish State during the period the BEPS tool is in operation. Despite these requirements, the effective tax rate (ETR) of the Double Irish is almost 0%, as the EU Commission discovered with Apple in 2016.
Most major US technology and life sciences multinationals have been identified as using the Double Irish. By 2010, US$95 billion of US profits were shifted annually to Ireland, which increased to US$106 billion by 2015. As the BEPS tool with which US multinationals built up untaxed offshore reserves of circa US$1 trillion from 2004 to 2017, the Double Irish is the largest tax avoidance tool in history. In 2016, when the EU levied a €13 billion fine on Apple, the largest tax fine in history, it only covered the period 2004–14, during which Apple shielded €111 billion in profits from U.S (and Irish) tax.