Editing Corporate haven (section)

===Apple's IP–based BEPS inversion===

Apple used Ireland's new BEPS tool, and "[[double Irish]]" replacement, the "[[double Irish arrangement#Backstop of capital allowances|capital allowances for intangible assets]]" scheme.<ref name="cffy"/>  This BEPS tool enables corporates to write-off the "arm's length" (to be OECD-compliant), intergroup acquisition of offshored IP, against all Irish corporate taxes.  The "arm's length" criteria are achieved by getting a major accounting firm in Ireland's [[International Financial Services Centre, Dublin|International Financial Services Centre]] to conduct a valuation, and Irish GAAP audit, of the IP.  The range of IP acceptable by the Irish [[Revenue Commissioners]] is very broad.  This BEPS tool can be continually replenished by acquiring new offshore IP with each new "product cycle".<ref name="maples">{{cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/377485537/Maples-and-Calder-Ireland-Intellectual-Property-2018|title=Maples and Calder Irish Intellectual Property Tax Regime - 2.5% Effective Tax|publisher=[[Maples and Calder]] Law Firm|date=February 2018|access-date=2018-05-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180516033549/https://www.scribd.com/document/377485537/Maples-and-Calder-Ireland-Intellectual-Property-2018|archive-date=2018-05-16|url-status=live}}</ref>

In addition, Ireland's 2015 Finance Act removed the 80% cap on this tool (which forced a minimum 2.5% [[Corporation tax in the Republic of Ireland#Effective tax rate (ETR)|effective tax rate]]), thus giving Apple a 0% effective tax rate on the "onshored" IP.  Ireland then restored the 80% cap in 2016 (and a return to a minimum 2.5% effective tax rate), but only for new schemes.<ref name="app2">{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/business/budget/tax-break-for-ip-transfers-is-cut-to-80pc-36215540.html|title=Tax break for IP transfers is cut to 80pc|work=Irish Independent|date=11 October 2017|access-date=16 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322015127/https://www.independent.ie/business/budget/tax-break-for-ip-transfers-is-cut-to-80pc-36215540.html|archive-date=22 March 2018|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="app1">{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/cliff-taylor-noonan-and-donohoe-rule-switching-could-cost-1bn-next-year-1.3283383?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fcliff-taylor-noonan-and-donohoe-rule-switching-could-cost-1bn-next-year-1.3283383|title=Change in tax treatment of intellectual property and subsequent and reversal hard to fathom|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=8 November 2017|access-date=16 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180321151140/https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/cliff-taylor-noonan-and-donohoe-rule-switching-could-cost-1bn-next-year-1.3283383?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fcliff-taylor-noonan-and-donohoe-rule-switching-could-cost-1bn-next-year-1.3283383|archive-date=21 March 2018|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

Thus, Apple was able to achieve what Pfizer-Allergan could not, by making use of Ireland's advanced IP-based BEPS tools.  Apple avoided any U.S regulatory scrutiny/blocking of its actions, as well as any wider U.S. public outcry, as Pfizer-Allergan incurred.  Apple structured an Irish corporate effective tax rate of close to zero on its non-U.S. business, at twice the scale of the Pfizer-Allergan inversion.

{{quote|I cannot see a justification for giving full Irish tax relief to the intragroup acquisition of a virtual asset, except that it is for the purposes of facilitating corporate tax avoidance.|source=Professor Jim Stewart, Trinity College Dublin, "MNE Tax Strategies in Ireland", 2016<ref>{{Cite web|title=MNE Tax Strategies in Ireland|url=https://www.tcd.ie/business/assets/pdf/MNE-tax-strategies-and-ireland.pdf|publisher=Trinity College Dublin|date=2016|access-date=2018-05-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180426215449/https://www.tcd.ie/business/assets/pdf/MNE-tax-strategies-and-ireland.pdf|archive-date=2018-04-26|url-status=live}}</ref>}}