

Anyone reaping Ireland's 12.5% corporate tax? - alexus

It looks like Ireland, with a 12.5% corporate tax, beats "the competition" by a long shot [http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/26/56/33717459.xls]. Has anyone set up remotely a company there for that reason? If so, would you recommend any sites such as http://www.formit.ie? Are local governments happy campers as long as you pay taxes on your dividends in your country of residence?
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alexus
US 2009 rate: second-to-last 39.1%! (US 1984 rate: 49.8%!) How on Earth has
the US managed to have such a dynamic economy with those tax rates?

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_delirium
Lots of reasons, but one is that it's offset by some other kinds of taxes
being absent or lower. Our sales tax is lower and collected on fewer kinds of
transactions than a European-style VAT, and our personal income tax rates are
lower than most other developed countries. Another is that we have a lot more
deductions and loopholes: Ireland's rate is lower, but they collect it more
consistently.

If you look at taxation as a percentage of GDP, the U.S. comes out relatively
low overall. For example, total tax revenues are 28% of GDP, and corporate-tax
revenues are 3.3% of GDP; both figures are higher in Ireland, meaning that
Irish taxation overall takes a bigger bite out of the Irish economy than U.S.
taxation does out of the U.S. one.

Data on that last point: <http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/48/27/41498733.pdf>

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anamax
However, if you look at taxes per person, the US is right in the middle of the
pack. (Lower fraction of GDP cancels out higher GDP.)

<http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2010/03/taxes-per-person.html> see also
<http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=4626>

In other words, the US govt gets enough money to provide the services of "high
tax" countries but doesn't manage to do so.

Example - the US govt's health care spending per resident is about equal to
that of countries with single payer yet the US govt doesn't even try to cover
everyone. Instead, most of those residents pay for their own healthcare....

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rdl
One of the problems until recently with Ireland was massive inflation in
salaries and housing costs. Even with low taxes, it's difficult for a startup
to get started and grow there (sort of a victim of their own success).
Hopefully now that real estate prices have dropped a bit, Ireland can grow
more from productive things like startups vs. speculation.

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jamesshamenski
FaceBook and Google are large employers in Ireland. It's a wealthy country but
they certainly suffered over the past year with the financial fiasco. I'd move
there for just cuz the irish are hilarious people.

