Apple case fallout causes jitters for multinationals

Seen & Heard: What it says in the Sunday papers

Fallout from the Apple case is causing jitters in the boardrooms of some of Ireland’s biggest companies, as Revenue says its tax “opinions” are valid for only five years. Photograph: Ritchie Tongo/EPA
Fallout from the Apple case is causing jitters in the boardrooms of some of Ireland’s biggest companies, as Revenue says its tax “opinions” are valid for only five years. Photograph: Ritchie Tongo/EPA

Fallout from the Apple case is causing jitters in the boardrooms of some of Ireland's biggest companies, the Sunday Independent reports.

In the wake of the case, Revenue has made it known that its “opinions” on how it interprets tax law are now valid only for five years. Many of Ireland’s largest multinationals rely on such opinions to ensure they are in compliance with corporation and other tax policies. Sixty applied for renewals of existing opinions by a deadline on June this year, the paper reports.

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Eir's top executives stand to make bonus payments of more than €180 million as French telecoms entrepreneur Xavier Nils's NJJ Holdings proceeds with a plan to buy into the Irish telco, writes the Sunday Times. The paper says any deal is likely to trigger payment sunder the company's management incentive plan.

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The Department of Health says it doesn't have the money to complete high profile hospital projects, the Sunday Business Post reports. In a submission to the Mid-Term Capital Review, the department said construction inflation had seen significant increases in tender prices for the National Children's Hospital and the National Forensic Mental Health Hospital and there was "no scope within the current capital envelope to even commence, let alone complete", commitments in the programme for government. They includes plans for a new National Maternity Hospital on the St Vincent's Hospital site in south Dublin.

The Sunday Times reports that widening the 20 per cent tax band by €1,000 in next month's budget could mean gains of less than €4 a week in take-home pay for the average worker, but could cost the exchequer more than €200 million. The warning comes in a submission to Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe from the Irish Taxation Institute.

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Aircraft leasing group Avolon is in search of one more landmark acquisition in an effort to become the largest player in the aircraft leasing sector, according to the Sunday Independent. The chief executive offered no clarity on when such a deal might happen.

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Revenue has so far secured more than €79 million from taxpayers who came forward before a deadline earlier this year to admit they had untaxed sources of income offshore, according to the Sunday Business Post. Citing a reply to a parliamentary question by former Labour Party leader Joan Burton, it says that seven taxpayers made disclosures worth more than €1 million.

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Cork's Elysian tower is to go back on the market as part of a €100 million divestment by US private equity group Blackstone. Blackstone secured control of the country's tallest building in the settlement of its long-running dispute with Elysian developer Michael O'Flynn.