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EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.
€324 billion – The amount by which Ireland could find itself short in hoping to cover pensions and social welfare by the middle of the century, according to reports earlier this week. The Department of Social Protection said the figure was based only on estimates of what would happen if no government action was taken.
0.6% – The amount by which the cost of living in Ireland rose in August. It’s now 2.0% dearer to live in Ireland than it was a year ago.
0.7% – The interest rate that Ireland paid to borrow money for three months in a bill auction on Thursday morning. That’s far less than the 1.8% we paid two months ago – but still much more than the price Germany pays, which is… 0.0%.
64.2% – The proportion of Sharon ‘Lying Eyes’ Collins’ six-year jail term, for conspiracy to murder her former partner and his sons, that Collins actually served. Collins was given early release on Tuesday after 1407 days behind bars, and will be formally ‘fully’ released in November, pending good behaviour.
18 – The number of members of the Oireachtas who may be in breach of ethics laws after they didn’t declare income received from their previous council roles in the Register of Members’ Interests. A Dáil committee will meet the week after next to discuss the issue, which affects 14 TDs and four Senators.
4th – The place achieved by the Irish team in the Paralympics medals table – that is, if you adjust it for population. Only Iceland, Australia and New Zealand took more golds per head of population than Ireland did – and that’s even if you include the population of all 32 counties represented by the all-island team.
€2.1 million – The approximate amount of income that the GAA has given up by deciding to cut ticket prices for the All-Ireland hurling final replays. Having charged €80 for stand tickets and €40 for terrace entry to the drawn matches last Sunday, the prices will be €50 and €25 in two weeks’ time – while the 82,300-capacity Croke Park will also house some juveniles paying a mere €10.
272 - The length, in days, of the protest undertaken by former staff at Lagan Brick in Co Cavan in a dispute over redundancy payments. The workers accepted a deal to end their nine-month campaign on Wednesday night.
0.5% – The value of a home that the IMF believes should be paid in an annual property tax, according to a review of Ireland’s financial affairs published on Monday. It didn’t take long for Michael Noonan to nip that idea in the bud.
67% – The proportion of the Indonesian adult male population who smoke cigarettes. That makes the men the world’s most prolific smokers. Oddly enough, though, only 3% of adult women have the habit.
One in seven – The proportion of boys who got an A grade in the Civic, Social and Political Education exam in the Junior Cert, the result of which were released this week. Nearly a third of girls managed the same grade – putting the subject at the top of the list of subjects in which the girls figuratively whooped the boy’s butts.
Three in seven – The proportion of Irish adults who are missing a tooth.
41 – The number of victims of the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster whose deaths could have been prevented, according to the report of an independent investigatory panel publised this week.
€41.152 – The amount per year that independent TDs get in a ‘leaders’ allowance’ – as they are considered by Leinster House to be leaders of a one-member party. This week Mick Wallace defended his decision to take the allowance, which he didn’t take last year – but is taking now, after his company’s tax affairs were revealed.
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Albeit morally wrong, they’re not actually breaking the law therefore it’s up to lawmakers to do something about it.
Is it even morally wrong?
I don’t see anything wrong with not paying more tax than you have to.
Its not illegal as such I don’t see the issue,
If most people had that sort of money they’d want to spend as little tax as they can too!
We are the ones who have to make up the difference for companys like google not paying their far share for everything this country provides.
Tony,
It’s very difficult for national legislators in one country to close the loopholes when other countries like Ireland, Netherlands, Bermuda, Cayman Islands etc make it their business to keep those loopholes open.
The multi nationals should be made to pay their fair share of the tax burden no matter part of the world they locate it. Access to the market of a country or region should be contingent on a fair tax contribution.
The multi nationals play one country off against another for the purposes of dodging tax. In the same way, the nations could play one multinational off against another in relation to market access. I’m sure Bing, Yahoo etc would appreciate exclusive rights to the U.K. market in return for an increased tax contribution.
Jimmy Carr
None of their IP originates in Ireland. They’re just another unscrupulous company exploiting loopholes and inefficiencies created by the sovereign states. If you’re 100% ok with that, then welcome to the financial crisis.
Matthew they provide jobs in the country because its worth there while, if they were bled dry by taxes they’ll pull out and the jobs will go with them
Tony
Assuming the lawmakers actually write the laws.
IMO lobby groups write the laws.
Politicians are mere puppets to give us the illusion of democracy.
Well they are surely your loopholes. If you are not happy with them close them
that is Irelands way of business, tax payer pays the loopholes,, not the rich,, that’s why we have investors here, but they need to be careful with Britain as that is where most of our exports go,, and that means higher home rates guaranteed if they go down,,,
So has Ireland gained international recognition as a tax haven yet, or are we still working on that?
It’s an international problem. If the UK legislates then they require Ireland and Luxembourg to legislate too. Ireland wouldn’t do that, they might upset the big companies that they rely on for jobs creation. The tax model just needs to be updated so that it can account for the dawn of a global market place open to everyone everywhere.
Everyone knows that Ireland is the major tax haven for multinationals in the world. Everyone, that is, except the Irish people – we really are just dumb Paddies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUxGWc-jUC4
Our politicians and leaders have consistently sold us out since the arrival of the Vikings right up to the present day. We are a nation of greedy, dishonest, cut-throat, spineless, ignorant, cowardly liars – Freud even said, or at least was attributed as saying, that the Irish are the only people on earth who are impervious to psychoanalysis. Why? Because they are unable to tell the truth.
The Americans already class Ireland as a tax haven .
If the UK are not careful Google will just pull out of the UK and transfer everything to here and nothing would change much for Google or their customers.
Lets hope they do!!!!
They don’t pay much tax in Ireland either.
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/google-paid-only-56m-tax-despite-10bn-turnover-26780405.html
Maybe, but they employ 2000 people that pay tax here
so that makes it ok Ged_star ?
then why should the guy down the road employing 5 people be taxed to the hilt ,
its the same thing , only a Question of scale .
if the tax rates are 12.5% , then they should be paying 12.5% tax.
I never said it makes it OK, but they obviously use the same loopholes here as in England to get away with it.
“if the tax rates are 12.5% , then they should be paying 12.5% tax”
Shouldn’t the government be enforcing that?
The tax revenue from the 2000 jobs and the minuscule amount of corporation tax that they pay is a very small return for the benefit that Google get in locating here. They get access to the workforce which Ireland has spent 20+ years educating, the communications, roads, electricity etc networks that the Irish people have spent generations developing, the low corporation tax and tax friendly avoidance regime which allows them to save billions and free access to the European market. Google 5 – 1 Ireland
Would you rather see them 2000 people on the dole
No. I’d prefer to see them working in indigenous Irish software companies. I’d also prefer to see Google pay an appropriate amount of tax for the privilege of locating here.
Thing is, if google or any other company had to pay the same tax here as they did in the rest if Europe, they would go else where. We have good communications, roads, educated workforce etc, but lets face it, Germany have better and their right in the heart of mainland Europe
Its a joke. Google are playing by the rules of the game as set out by the UK. Crying foul is pathetic and a waste of time and money. Change the rules/game and close the loop hole you idiots! Or else shut up moaning………
It may be deemed unethical, but is legal and so until that changes all the grilling in the world will achieve diddly squat.
I see Amazon paid £2.4 million tax on sales of £4.2 billion in the UK last Year. How many tax paying businesses went under due to not been able to compete with them
and who makes up the difference to server the countries debt.
Don’t worry, they’re not escaping the spotlight either!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DxaLrW49awc
They actually received more in grants from the government than they paid in taxes. In 10 years in the UK they have paid a grand total of £6 million in taxes.
How UK many companies do this kind of thing in African countries?
Goose/Gander me thinks!
It also seems only a few days since I was seeing UK news channels going on about how film tax breaks were going to mean that a lot of the new Star Wars film was going to be made there.
This is nothing but posturing and pandering to their electorate. I don’t see the PAC complaining about the level of business and employment that Google bring to the UK.
Don’t be evil…just immoral
I see what you did there…
What about all the British companies paying tax in the UK on profits made on operations in Ireland?!
They would only do that if their accountant was an idiot.
Tesco cough cough
I can’t help but feel that it’s a little hypocritical for the UK to criticise any other country’s ‘business friendly’ taxation regime.
A huge percentage of the British economy is based around the exact same types of business-friendly regulatory and taxation policies. The only difference is that while Ireland focuses a lot of its attention on the IT sector, pharma, biopharma, electronics etc, the UK mostly focuses on ensuring that banks, investment funds, hedge funds etc all feel comfortable in the City of London.
There are many other EU countries that are extremely irritated by the UK’s taxation and financial regulation setup for exactly the same reason that these MPs are annoyed about Google making use of Ireland’s corporate tax regime.
I’m not saying I necessarily agree with how big corporate do this, but it just seems slightly odd for the UK of all countries to be getting on its high horse about the issue given it’s so utterly dependent on very similar tactics itself!
The UK has just reduced corporation tax in the last few weeks, does that mean they are now helping companies cheat that are in higher tax countries? Politicians bull$h1tt1ng as usual.
How do I become a Corporation that employs just me?…sick to the teeth of paying in reality 50% tax on the PRSI..USC hamster wheel….12.5% looks better in anyones books.
You can do exactly the same as they do. Google “perpetual traveller” or buy a yacht. There were even civil servants up to recently in the UK avoiding tax by becoming corporations. PS My fee for that advice if you use is €500. Please send to my Cayman Island bank account :)
David – become a google or amazon and you won’t pay 12.5% – you can pay 0.01%.
And yet the UK won’t join the other EU countries to establish a financial transaction tax. It’s ok for them to protect their business but Ireland can’t? – hypocrites
Yes that the Tories and there donors always abide by the tax rules.
Lets up the corporate tax rate, if any more proof was needed that companies would be out of here like a hot snot if we did so. Corporations go where corporation tax is cheap.
Competition is what this is all about. We have been forced to allow competition in all aspects of business including some where it hasn’t worked so well like utilities and services.
Yet the very Governments who forced competition on the business world can’t compete among themselves.
Governments cry foul when a company gets a better deal on taxes such as in this case yet if the UK want Google to book taxes in the UK then make it attractive to do so. Ireland does well taking a small percentage of a big pie.
The Germans have an issue with this too but they should compete or shut up.
The internet is difficult to manage with traditional rules applicable to taxation which look at the origin of the good or service. The profits of the internet are mobile and the governement who recognises that will win out.
Our VAT rate is a problem for Cloud computing as the law states that VAT be charged at the origin country so we will never have any consumer cloud services here. Also we will not have any online retailers here either as they would have to fleece customers for 23% VAT when they can pay ~13% in Luxembourg.
Interesting. Seeing as how the gov paid apple to bring jobs to Ireland – surely there’s an equally illogical solution to that problem. Or maybe even a progressive and logical solution.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Fix your laws if they’re not working.
Google owns it to their shareholders to maximize their profit and I don’t see what is ethically wrong with this.
How, big business makes the rules
Get it yet!!
It is almost pointless having big companies like Google and Facebook in Ireland. Yes, they create employment but given that there is full employment in IT why should we make a tight labour market tighter.
Many will argue that even if Google and Facebook pay virtually no tax we should still have them here…. well there is another way of looking at this.
Indigenous Irish IT companies are struggling to grow because the banks won’t lend and investors don’t have money. So, young Irish start-ups have to live on crumbs and that is a holding back our economy. Then we have Google and Facebook who are constantly poaching staff from Irish companies by paying them an extra 20% salary etc. (as well they might since they don’t pay tax like most other companies.) So, you might say, what’s wrong with that? The employee gets more money so what’s the problem? Well, if we don’t have a strong base of Irish companies we will be left high and dry when Facebook pull out and move to some other tax jurisdiction (just like Dell did). Additionally, small companies can’t afford the army of accountants needed to perform the tax tricks of the multinationals so they actually pay tax to the Irish economy which is turns pays for your roads,, hospitals and schools.
We should grasp the nettle and tell the multi nationals to pay up or move out. They are becoming more powerful than national governments and no one wants to challenge them. Just like the Kyoto agreement for the environment we need a similar global agreement for tax – every company should pay a minimum amount of tax . They are sitting on trillions of dollars (I am not exaggerating) and if they paid just a fair proportion in tax then the world would be a better place. I am not a communist and I am not advocating crippling tax levels but even a minimum threshold of 7.5% would bring in more for Ireland than the famous 12.5% as that is whittled away by tax breaks and pricing transfers.
Job creation is far more important than upsetting UK politicians at present and places like Scotland & N Irl are competing aggressively for these jobs.whistleblowers are a huge problem for companies with a job for life no longer the norm.
Utter bullshit! Typical politicians!! They could care less, & actively pursue these companies to locate in their country, & entice them by low corporation tax? So to hold an inquiry as to the “Low” taxes paid, & grill these companies is hypocrisy of the highest order!!! & companies like this actually put far more back in to the economy than people realise!!
Such as Marty?
Please ensure to co balance with what they take out
Oh the politicians will tell you it’s billions??? They’ll tell you this to get you on their side, but in reality it’s a far different picture, & as for what these companies put back in, we’ll just ask who they employee, or the outsourcing companies they use, or the thousands of others benefiting from their indirect involvement??? Please, read it all, look at the bigger picture, & please, try not to listen or believe all politicians tell you???
All run-of-the-mill companies employ people and outsource various parts of their business. So, why should Google pay only 0.14% tax here while most small Irish businesses pay 12.5%? Google, Microsoft etc take more than they give. If they paid tax on their declared profits like any other Irish business then we would never have had to bring in the IMF etc. So, let’s get real. Google, FB, MSFT just use us for our tax. In the US those same companies wouldn’t dare take on the IRS as those guys (IRS) would get medieval on them. Multinationals act with impunity here and the government is afraid to hold them to account..
and as soon as they get the multinationals to locate here they hold a press conference telling us all how great they are and the amount of jobs they have created yippee!! but they don’t tell us about the sacrifices to the economy they have made which not only helps negate the gains but pisses off the rest of the EEC/western world ,like the UK we are an island economy except we were never an empire so we need to do extra to attract business also the fact we have few natural resources and those we have are being sold off by politicians who don’t own them (we do!!) does not help,here are a few ideas, all companies that locate here have to stay 20 years minimum and if they pull out they face all sorts of penalties that way those looking to make a quick buck and quit are never in the running .Make them pay more tax on which they can claim some of it back the longer they are here not like the bonus system here which rewards bankers for being idiots ,only for results in the positive which don’t have a lash back years later ,pay these idiots bonuses in shares which they cannot sell until they retire lets see how reckless they are with their own money .We have one of the best natural resources in Europe our educated very well spoken workers lets not let our politicians sell them off cheaply for a sound bite in the press
He doesn’t even have the respect to wear a shirt and tie to the hearing.
They’re always going to save where they can. Maximise turnover. They’ve broken no law. Change the law.
It’s not like Google are using up tons of resources with their actions. Fair play to them I say. If we could all get away with it, we would. They do pay tax, just not as much as the powers that be would like them to.
have your say