They should be taxing the rich corporations and dividends that the mega-rich are availing of. There is also a scheme called the “double irish arrangement” that Microsoft and Apple use to avoid paying taxes to Ireland. It is funneled into the Netherlands instead.

Tim, Microsoft and Apple etc are not here for the weather or the “bright” educated workforce.

Of course not. That’s why we shouldn’t be a tax haven. It is not a sustainable economy. Low corporation tax did Not protect us in 2009 when HP and Dell left Ireland.

Britain is currently introducing a wealth tax and we should be doing the same. There is nowhere for them to go now, unlike what the critics have previously claimed.

Apple and Microsoft (Google, CISCO, Intel, SAP, VMWare… to name few) are here, and yes, because it’s tax heaven.

But they employ thousands of irish people, who bring good wage home every month, spend a lot of it in the country, and pay income taxes.

Mr. Roche,

That is the result of having low taxes on corporations and loopholes that the rich use. As a result, small and medium businesses are penalized to fill this tax gap for the mega-rich.

Britain is currently introducing a wealth tax and Ireland should be doing the same because they have nowhere else to go.

A group of us got together and did the same, they couldn’t provide an explanation of how they were calculated but were quick to threaten court action for non payment. You also have to pay at the START of the year, when you don’t know what you are paying for, how it is calculated, before you even receive “it” or whatever it is

People who voted for a right-wing conservative government are learning the hard lesson. They gave tax breaks to the rich and corporations recently. No different to Charlie McGreevey.

That wasn’t my point if you read my argument. Why do you think taxes are high on small businesses? Because corporation tax is low. Also consider the tax loopholes like the famous “double Irish arrangement” and then you get a huge tax shortfall. So it gets passed onto small businesses while the big corporations pay nothing.

This is Fine Gael economics at its worst.