Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke has refuted claims made earlier this week that Ireland is a “tax scam”.
US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, took part in an interview on American technology and business podcast All-In in which he said that Ireland is his “favourite tax scam”.
When asked if he accepted that Ireland was a “tax scam” today on RTÉ’s This Week in Politics, Burke said “absolutely not”.
“Ireland has about 80 exchange agreements. We have the most bilateral treaties, tax treaties as part of the EU as well. So we absolutely have no tax scams in this country. We’re very clear in terms of transparency and we led the BEPS process with the OECD to reform the tax architecture right across Europe.”
Burke added that Ireland has to focus on what it can control as the prospect of Trump’s administration proceeding with proposed tariffs on the EU from 2 April nears.
The interview, which spanned an hour and 44 minutes, was posted on Thursday and has almost half a million views on Youtube.
In the interview, Lutnick speaks about his relationship with US President Donald Trump and his work in the White House, alongside tariffs, global trade, and various economic plans.
Speaking on “tax scams” on the podcast, Lutnick said: “We have to try and fix a whole bunch of these tax scams. Ireland is my favourite. The country of Ireland last year had a sixty-billion dollar budget surplus. So [America] lose two trillion and they make 60.
“You’d say, Ireland, what do they do? Oh, they have all of our [Intellectual Property] for our great tech.
“All our great tech companies and great pharma companies. They all put it there because it’s low tax and they don’t pay us. They pay them. So that’s got to end. So when those things end, tariffs, Trump card, getting rid of tax scams to get fair tax, that’s my trillion.”
Lutnick’s figures used to demonstrate Ireland’s budget surplus are false – Ireland’s budget surplus from 2024 amounted to €25 billion, which included the windfall Apple Tax from the CJEU ruling that amounted to €14 billion.
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