alt Hacker NewsNot only tax loss but also GDP loss.
https://www.politico.eu/article/ireland-gdp-growth-multinati...
Ireland, like Luxembourg, Singapore, Switzerland and other tax havens have “ghost GDP” - GDP that exists purely because of economic activity recorded as occurring in Ireland due to tax offshoring, but doesn’t actually exist (the economic activity happened in another country, and the money doesn’t end stay in Ireland).
I’ve seen a few attempts at estimating the size and it’s up to 40% of Ireland’s GDP.
If that tax advantage disappears one would expect multinationals to rearrange their affairs and we should see a rapid decrease in Ireland’s GDP over the next few years.
> If that tax advantage disappears one would expect multinationals to rearrange their affairs
To be clear, the ruling relates to a state of affairs which existed from 1980-2014, and the issue in question was whether Apple was given a special tax deal relative to other companies (which the EU generally doesn't allow outside very limited cases). It has no bearing on Ireland tax rules in 2024.
> and we should see a rapid decrease in Ireland’s GDP over the next few years.
This would arguably in itself be no bad thing; Ireland has one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world, and the highest of any country with a population greater than a million people (the rest are microstates plus Luxembourg). This artificially inflated GDP causes some problems; in particular it increases Ireland's EU contributions above where they'd otherwise be. Ireland pays more per capita to the EU than any other country.