01/11/21

US: Yellen shies away from ‘tax haven’ label for Ireland.

As published on irishtimes.com, Sunday 31 October, 2021.

US treasury secretary Janet Yellen tells the Business Post that she “would not wish to label Ireland a tax haven”. In an interview ahead of her visit to Dublin on Monday, she said getting Ireland to join the OECD agreement on corporate tax reform was “critical to being able to get an EU agreement” and hailed the deal as a once in a generation opportunity that is likely to prove durable.

Irish-founded payments company Stripe is looking for a new Dublin office that will be able to accommodate up to 2,000 staff, the Sunday Times reports. The company, founded by Patrick and John Collison, is in talks with developers on potential sites. With many staff working from home, the paper reports the company is looking at an 18-month window to secure new premises.

The Sunday Times also writes that a London investment company has appointed a receiver over a property business headed by former Irish rugby international Brendan Mullin. ARA Venn Capital has put the receiver into Bisvale, whose purchase of properties at the upmarket Shrewsbury Square in Sandymount from Nama it funded.

Applications for employment permits have surged to the highest level since 2008, just before the financial crash, the Sunday Independent reports. A spokesman for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment told the paper 17,084 applications to employ workers from outside the European Economic Area – EU states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – up to the end of September, a 41 per cent jump on the same period last year.

The Business Post also reports that Denis O’Brien could return to his plan to float Digicel on the US stock market after using the $1.4 billion net proceeds from the sale of its Pacific business to Australian telecoms group Telstra to pay down debt. The paper says the debt payment would cut the group’s total borrowings by a quarter to just over $4.1 billion. Mr O’Brien previously considered floating the business in 2015 but the idea was shelved.

Amazon is seeking permission for two more Dublin data centres, the Sunday Times reports, but has promised to offset their power consumption with three wind farms in Donegal, Galway and Cork. The centres are earmarked for an IDA industrial park in Clonshaugh.