Furthermore, in the case at hand, while Ireland is free to set their tax rate to something low, like 12.5%, it needs to apply this to all companies, not allow any of them to fiddle their way to only paying 0.005% like Apple did. The commission considers this illegal state aid to a company, and I'd tend to agree. It's unfair competion when a company only operating in Ireland needs to pay 12.5% in corporate tax, while an international company with a creative ownership structure involving the Cayman Islands can pay effectively 0%.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_erosion_and_profit_shifti...
That is not true. They employee a few thousand people in an industrial estate outside a suburb of cork in fairly low ranking jobs. If they were to disappear overnight they would doubtless have an impact but not a fraction of €14bn
And if Apple did leave it's not unrealistic that the reasons that made them leave would also be on the minds of the other multinationals in the area.
The country needed all it could get. And it eventually did very well, then screwed it up in the Global Financial Crisis, but now seems to be doing quite well (until Brexit starts to have an effect).
Even assuming that's the case (sounds far fetched to me), would that mean they now wouldn't have to pay a fair tax rate?
They would, but you have to define "fair" first.
Many people may no realise this, but this exactly holds for African countries too. As the continent develops, some countries will become certain roleplayers that essentially are already apparent now, for those willing to go and look for it.
South Africa is the financial capital of Africa, and it would do most people here good to emphasise that. It is an entry point into the rest of Africa (despite, or because of even, being the furthest away from Europe) and its long term trajectory is probably going to remain in what I guess we could call facilitation.
If we compare SA to Ireland or Switzerland, again, they are countries that attempt to facilitate development. I think tax needs to be a topic in its own right, and the exact properties of a country is also a topic in its own right.
Luxembourg will always be forced into a niche, and whether that niche is tax based on not depends on the options at their disposal. Wealthy people see tax as an expense just like any other and the onus is on ordinary people to build inherent value rather than simply financial value.
But you need cultural momentum for this. South Africa's niche role is compounded by cultural and African factors and I am first in line of those that want a foundational based economy, rather than a facilitation based one. But you really need the will to work hard and build inherent value. My final point is simply that one can complain about countries that focus on tax (or tax evation) but the real question is: What else are the options. (And I'm sure there are opportunities waiting.)
Countries aren't all identical. Ireland needs to be allowed tune its economic policies based on what it has to offer. It doesn't have the population of France, or the location of Germany. It has english speakers and a reasonably well educated workforce, two factors that aren't unique to it. A low corporation tax policy counts for a lot.