DUBLIN: An Irish company linked to Goldman Sachs that bought more than €200 million of Irish commercial property loans in 2014 from the former Anglo Irish Bank paid zero tax in its first year of operation, despite collecting €17.1 million in cash repayments on those loans.
Liffey Acquisitions is a special purpose vehicle (SPV), a complex type of tax-efficient financial entity generally structured to pay no tax in Ireland. The SPV regime was introduced to attract global debt securitisation to Dublin.
However, SPVs are a source of major political controversy, after allegations by Opposition TDs they are being used by so-called “vulture funds” to avoid tax on their activities in Ireland.
Liffey owns Kenmare Property Finance, the Goldman-linked SPV set up to hold the mostly Irish, and some UK, property loans bought from the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.
