Ireland tax reputation move du jour And so to the Irish government's international tax strategy, fresh out on Tuesday and making Ireland "part of the solution to this global tax challenge, not part of the problem" according to Michael Noonan. Ireland has incidentally guided its 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate through its bailout. It even outlived Sarkozy's presidency. But one policy jumps out from the tax strategy: The second measure to be included in the Finance Bill is a change to our company residence rules aimed at eliminating mismatches - that can exist between tax treaty partners in certain circumstances - being used to allow companies to be "stateless" in terms of their place of tax residence... Which can't at all be a response to this criticism in the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations" report from May on "Offshore profit shifting and the US tax code," surely? Apple explained that, although AOI has been incorporated in Ireland since 1980, it has not declared a tax residency in Ireland or any other country and so has not paid any corporate income tax to any national government in the past 5 years. Apple has exploited a difference between Irish and U.S. tax residency rules... And here's a paper - cited by Ireland's Budget 2014 site - on why Ireland isn't a tax haven. Well, it'll be even less of one now. And yes, sovereign "tax reputation" is a thing. Related link: Apple Operations International, facts (?) du jour - FT Alphaville (May)