Yellen: Irish-based firms often paid ‘much less’ than 12.5% tax

US Treasury Secretary said that tax competition among nations created situation where workers, families and countries lost out

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen: tax competition among nations had created a beggar-thy-neighbour approach to government policy. Picture: Bryan Meade

Companies based in Ireland often paid “much less” than the headline 12.5 per cent rate of corporation tax, Janet Yellen has said.

The US Treasury Secretary told an audience at Dublin Castle last week that a “race to the bottom” on corporation tax rates across the world had deprived countries of much-needed tax revenues which could’ve been used to invest in society.

Yellen, who was a driving force of a recently agreed global overhaul of ...