Biden’s America, of course, is all about re-engaging with the world after four years of isolationism. But if you are the Irish finance minister, perhaps the new administration isn’t looking quite so cuddly at the moment.
Biden’s first big achievement in international cooperation looks like being a global minimum corporate tax rate. It seems that G7 nations are about to announce they have agreed on such a tax, set at 15 per cent. It will mean corporations paying a minimum of 15 per cent tax on their profits regardless of where they are based in the world, where they do business and where they pretend to do business.
Among those most upset by the proposals is Ireland
The moral is: don’t bother pretending you have to pay inflated sums for coffee beans, for the right to use a brand name, or whatever, to a subsidiary which just happens to be based in the Cayman Islands, because the US taxman will find a way of spearing any money you think you will save.
And it really will be the US taxman, or the tax authorities of some other large country.
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