I agree that countries should be free to set their corporate tax rate to whatever they want to attract investment. But corporations should not be able to just shift their profits to any country, but sadly, using loopholes in international tax law, they can currently do so freely [1]. This means Ireland is not just taxing companies for the economic activity that goes on within its borders, it is also preventing taxation of economic activities in all other European countries.
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%.
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...