DUBLIN: The so-called ‘Google Tax’ is aimed at limiting the benefits to companies of tax avoidance measures such as the Double Irish, and will target inter-company fees for services like the use of intellectual property.
The Treasury document said that the 25pc UK tax would be effective from the start of April, and would target conduit-type structures, such as the Double Irish.
This particular change in a UK context is designed to attack those multinationals who are perceived to be eroding the UK tax base, particularity in the digital economy, some of whom are based here, and some of whom are based in the Luxembourg and Netherlands,” he told the Irish Independent.
Companies will also be required to report their potential liability to the new tax, which will sit outside Britain’s existing corporate tax system.
The move, first announced by Chancellor George Osborne in last week’s autumn statement, comes just two months after Finance Minister Michael Noonan said in Budget 2015 that the Double Irish would be phased out and scrapped for existing companies by 2020 amid international pressure.
