Corporation tax paid by big-10 doubles in five years to €2.8bn

The amount of corporation tax paid by the 10 largest multinational companies in Ireland has doubled in the last five years, according to new figures from the Department of Finance.

The top-10 companies as measured by tax paid, thought to include names such as Microsoft, Dell, Google and Oracle, paid over €2.8 billion in corporation tax last year, the Department of Finance says.

This represents an almost 100 per cent increases since 2011, when the amount paid by the top-10 companies was over €1.4 billion.

The 2015 figure represents nearly 37 per cent of gross corporation tax receipts, up from the 32 per cent represented by the 2011 figure.

The 2015 figure also shows a big jump in receipts from the top-10 payers – all of which are multinationals – of over €1 billion. In 2014 corporation tax receipts from the big 10 were €1.729 billion but last year this rose to €2.801 billion. Earlier this month the Central Statistics Office sharply revised its 2015 full-year GDP forecast to 26 per cent, reflecting in part the activities of these big multinationals.

The figures were supplied in an answer to a parliamentary question asked by the Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath.

Over-reliance

On Sunday Mr McGrath warned of the danger of such a small concentration of sources of revenue.

“These figures show a remarkable growth in our dependence on a small number of multinational companies for corporation tax receipts,” he said.

“While we all hope these receipts are a recurring feature of our taxation system, it would be very unwise to build up permanent spending commitments on the back of it. That is why Fianna Fáil proposed that a rainy day fund be established for such unexpected and unpredictable corporation tax revenue.”

Rising revenues to the Irish exchequer from multinationals, many of them technology firms with major bases here, come at a time when there is increasing focus on the tax affairs of some of the world’s largest companies. Despite being hugely profitable, many companies greatly minimise their tax bills by shifting profits between subsidiaries around the world, by contrived corporate structures designed to avoid tax and by availing of tax loopholes.

But adverse publicity and political pressure in recent years mean some companies are thought to have reduced the use of tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, and so increasing their tax bills in countries such as Ireland and the UK

However, this has also meant increasing focus on Ireland’s comparatively low corporation tax regime, viewed as predatory and unfair by some EU countries.