Review Of 2017 And Looking To 2018

The last twelve months have seen renewed international focus on Ireland's 12.5% low tax offering and its interaction with other tax systems around the globe. The OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative has driven international groups to restructure their business structures away from zero tax haven locations and into Ireland. Ireland's focus on the knowledge economy and technology has made the country a natural location to develop new innovative products and processes that generate new business. Accordingly, many internationally focused groups that have or are developing a significant presence here have onshored their intellectual property into Ireland. This has had the added benefit of enabling groups to develop licensing hubs from Ireland that can avail of the EU Royalties Directive to avoid withholding taxes on licence fees, whilst sheltering taxable profits for tax depreciation on expenditure incurred on specified intangible assets. Withholding tax