Yet the government is giving with one hand even as it takes with the other.
On the same day it did away with the Double Irish, it created a “knowledge development box”, which will allow firms to pay a lower tax rate on profits from intellectual property booked in Ireland.
The OECD has tried, unsuccessfully, to limit this type of tax benefit, which is also known as a “patent box”. Moreover, the Double Irish won’t die overnight. Companies already registered in Ireland are being given six years to alter their accounting structures.