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Tax Haven Ireland
This is the story of how a small island on the edge of Europe became one of the world’s major tax havens. From global corporations such as Apple and Google, to investment bankers and mainstream politicians, those taking advantage of Ireland’s pro-business tax laws and shadow banking system have amassed untold riches at enormous social cost to ordinary people at home and abroad.
Tax Haven Ireland uncovers the central players in this process and exposes the coverups employed by the Irish state, with the help of accountants, lawyers and financial services companies. From the lucrative internet porn industry to corruption in the property market, this issue distorts the economy across the state and in the wider international system, and its history runs deep, going back the country’s origins as a British colonial outpost.
Today, in the wake of Brexit and in the shadow of yet another economic crash, what can be done to prevent such dangerous behaviour and reorganise our economies to invest in the people? Can Ireland – and all of us – build an alternative economy based on fairness and democratic values?
Tax Haven Ireland uncovers the central players in this process and exposes the coverups employed by the Irish state, with the help of accountants, lawyers and financial services companies. From the lucrative internet porn industry to corruption in the property market, this issue distorts the economy across the state and in the wider international system, and its history runs deep, going back the country’s origins as a British colonial outpost.
Today, in the wake of Brexit and in the shadow of yet another economic crash, what can be done to prevent such dangerous behaviour and reorganise our economies to invest in the people? Can Ireland – and all of us – build an alternative economy based on fairness and democratic values?
271 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 20, 2021
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 27, 2025
This book was just ok, but it should have been great. If you like this sort of thing, then this is the sort of thing you'll like, so I think you should pick it up if you're interested. The author does amazing, saintly, journalistic and documentary work highlighting and explaining the network of tax avoidance and how Ireland, in particular, fits into that web. But it's honestly too long, rather bloated, and the morality discussions come across more shrill than scandalizing.
Chapters 1 and 2 are trying to motivate why one should care about all this and I think their success in this is a bit mixed. You, dear reader, likely already have an intuitive grasp on this if you're even interested in thsi book. Chapter 4 is the strongest, in my opinion, clearly laying out, whiteboard-style, how tax havens work and how companies use them. This chapter alone is probably worth the price of admission. If you've ever wondered how accounting chicanery works, look no further. Chapter 3 is also pretty good as a history of how Tax Haven Ireland came to be. I know almost nothing about Irish history, so this was pretty interesting to me as a political history primer, as well. Chapter 5 is instructive, insofar as it names names of firms that facilitate tax avoidance and details the parts different players play, but I feel like it really drags from here on out, reading more like a laundry list of the different big firms (Apple! Hedge funds! Actually, the Apple bit is pretty valid) and industries that take advantage of the frameworks and trying to shock you with how brazen it all is (it's brazen because it's legal).
Clearly tax dodging is a problem and we, people of the world, should do something about it, if only because aggressive avoidance, like allowing drivers to exceed the speed limit without ever getting a ticket, is bad for rule of law and social cohesion. I think in an effort to make the stakes here seem higher, though, the book falls prey to some of the fallacies of maximalist consequentialism where dollars of lost tax revenue equate 1:1 with people of the global south or future unborn people dying. In doing so, I think the book overextends itself and undermines its own case a little.
I think the banal details of regulatory capture and the way wealthy and powerful people and companies (including many beloved celebrities and brands) manipulate institutions to line their own pockets at our expense is bad enough, frankly. And despite some of my criticisms, this book does yeoman's work detailing this.
Chapters 1 and 2 are trying to motivate why one should care about all this and I think their success in this is a bit mixed. You, dear reader, likely already have an intuitive grasp on this if you're even interested in thsi book. Chapter 4 is the strongest, in my opinion, clearly laying out, whiteboard-style, how tax havens work and how companies use them. This chapter alone is probably worth the price of admission. If you've ever wondered how accounting chicanery works, look no further. Chapter 3 is also pretty good as a history of how Tax Haven Ireland came to be. I know almost nothing about Irish history, so this was pretty interesting to me as a political history primer, as well. Chapter 5 is instructive, insofar as it names names of firms that facilitate tax avoidance and details the parts different players play, but I feel like it really drags from here on out, reading more like a laundry list of the different big firms (Apple! Hedge funds! Actually, the Apple bit is pretty valid) and industries that take advantage of the frameworks and trying to shock you with how brazen it all is (it's brazen because it's legal).
Clearly tax dodging is a problem and we, people of the world, should do something about it, if only because aggressive avoidance, like allowing drivers to exceed the speed limit without ever getting a ticket, is bad for rule of law and social cohesion. I think in an effort to make the stakes here seem higher, though, the book falls prey to some of the fallacies of maximalist consequentialism where dollars of lost tax revenue equate 1:1 with people of the global south or future unborn people dying. In doing so, I think the book overextends itself and undermines its own case a little.
I think the banal details of regulatory capture and the way wealthy and powerful people and companies (including many beloved celebrities and brands) manipulate institutions to line their own pockets at our expense is bad enough, frankly. And despite some of my criticisms, this book does yeoman's work detailing this.
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