The Revenue Commissioners are examining the 28,000 plus Lux Leaks documents detailing agreements between a number of countries with operations in Ireland and the tax authorities in Luxembourg.
Several companies including food company Glanbia and Hutchison Whampoa, owner of the 3 mobile network here, have been mentioned in the documents which were published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Jim Clarken, the chief executive of Oxfam Ireland, says that the latest Lux Leaks shows the urgent need for action to be taken to fix the global toxic tax system and describes the details of the deals as "staggering". He says the avoidance of tax has a real human impact and is especially tough on developing countries.
Mr Clarken says that tax money which is owned by a country's citizens is being avoided by a whole complex network of secret deals, tax havens and other arrangements. While these may be legal, they are unethical and immoral, he adds. He estimates that up to $104 billion of tax revenue is being lost to developing countries every year - multiple the times of the global aid budget. This money should be paid for essential services such as healthcare and education.
Mr Clarken says the situation has to change, adding that when the likes of huge countries such as the US is seeing losses in its tax revenues, it hammers home the global scale of the problem. He says that Oxfam now has "strange allies" in the like of the US, IMF and the World Economic Forum in fighting the problem of tax avoidance, which is continuing to drive global inequality.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Oil prices recovered slightly overnight in Asian trade after another sharp fall yesterday triggered by a report from oil cartel OPEC predicting much lower global demand than previously expected. At one stage Brent crude, a key benchmark oil price, had dropped 4.9% to a five-year low under $64 a barrel before recovering to $64.70.
*** Documents posted online by hackers who broke into Sony's IT system reveal a large pay disparity between Sony's chief executive Kazuo Hirai and one of his key staff. Michael Lynton, head of Sony's film studio, is paid double Hirai's salary according to the leaked documents. In fact eight other executives at Sony, many of them in the entertainment division, made as much or more than Hirai last year. Sony Pictures is in the middle of a three year $695m cost-cutting programme. The hacking attack and the commercial sensitivity of the documents released has caused huge embarrassment for Sony. Its shares fell over 3% in Tokyo overnight following the publication of the pay reports and are down almost 10% on the week.
