How big tech keeps close to our tax officials

Ireland is beholden to major tech companies and tax officials here may feel that they don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth

Influence: Apple and Microsoft pay billions in tax here every year

Adrian Weckler

How beholden is Ireland to big tech and pharma multinationals? Very. Have we diversified? No. A tiny number of companies — including Microsoft and Apple — are estimated to pay over a third of the country’s corporate taxes.

These are several billions each: Apple alone pays about €7bn a year in tax here; Microsoft just under half of that. With such vast dependency comes a perception of power and influence. But just how do they use it?