The EU insisted on Apple paying billions to the irish government that the irish government fought not to get. Irish-Dutch sandwich is a term designating the practice of using a tax loophole that lets big corporations avoid paying taxes.
Honestly, I'm not sure that the time to prove Ireland tax heaven will be that tough. Of course, the EU does not designate Ireland as a tax heaven, but you should have to keep in mind that Ireland is a member state of the EU and the tax heaven list is approved with unanimous vote which might be a cause for a conflict of interests.
Clarification. The EU asked the Irish Government to collect taxes that it declared were unpaid. It would then decide which countries were owed which chunk or the unpaid tax (all tax was declared through Ireland but sales were not solely in Ireland. So the tax was to be redistributed to the origin of sales). The issue with the judgement, and the reason the Irish Government were fighting it, was the ruling stated Ireland breached the law and provided an unfair advantage to one company. The Government were arguing that every company could avail of the same tax rules so it was not an unfair advantage / subsidy.
As for being a tax haven, this is something that is said by others who are outside of the Irish tax system and only look at the low corporate tax (they fail to see they other hidden taxes businesses have to pay like water tax, bin tax etc). Im not suggesting that the companies are fully "paying their way" but that it is too simplistic to only look at 1 tax requirement.
If you have worked in Ireland you would understand that the Irish tax system is extremely complex.....as employee you could pay tax in 3 separate income tax calculations, then a "bank bailout tax" that has remained even though the banks were bailed out. It is not uncommon for middle / high income workers to pay approx. 50% of their wage in deductions. Similarly if you tried to set up a company you would understand that the rules are not black and white but rather "you apply this tax calculation on a Friday, if the moon is full and the grass is blowing to the west"
You don't seem to understand what a tax haven is. It's not that domestic people don't pay taxes, or that there is no income tax, or payroll tax.
It's that corporate profits can be artificially shifted there and are then not or barely taxed.
Just read the wikipedia article please:
> Ireland ranks in all non-political "tax haven lists" going back to the first lists in 1994,[n][30] and features in all "proxy tests" for tax havens and "quantitative measures" of tax havens. The level of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) by U.S. multinationals in Ireland is so large,[4] that in 2017 the Central Bank of Ireland abandoned GDP/GNP as a statistic to replace it with Modified gross national income (GNI*).[104][105] Economists note that Ireland's distorted GDP is now distorting the EU's aggregate GDP,[106] and has artificially inflated the trade-deficit between the EU and the US.
In all fairness:
The Dutch sandwich has been illigal for years now
The fine related to 'state aid' in the form of advice to Apple, and was appealed as the Exchequer makes far more money from Apple and other big tech then this fine would ever cover.
Have a look at the effective tax rates between Ireland and France if you want an eye opener
According to the OECD [1],France has an effective average corporate tax rate of 29.4% while Ireland has a 12.4% one. France has one of the highest in the OECD and Ireland one of the lowest. Unless you are arguing that Ireland is indeed effectively a tax haven, I don't see the eye opener.
Honestly, I'm not sure that the time to prove Ireland tax heaven will be that tough. Of course, the EU does not designate Ireland as a tax heaven, but you should have to keep in mind that Ireland is a member state of the EU and the tax heaven list is approved with unanimous vote which might be a cause for a conflict of interests.