Feargal O'Rourke

Feargal O'Rourke (born 3 August 1964) is an Irish accountant and corporate tax expert, who was the managing partner of PwC in Ireland. He is considered the architect of the ''Double Irish'' tax scheme used by U.S. firms such as Apple, Google and Facebook in Ireland, and a leader in the development of corporate tax planning tools, and tax legislation, for U.S. multinationals in Ireland.

Personal

O'Rourke comes from an established Fianna Fáil political family. He is the son of former Irish minister Mary O'Rourke, nephew of former Irish Tánaiste Brian Lenihan Snr, and cousin of former Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan Jnr, and former Irish Minister of State Conor Lenihan.

He chaired the college branch of Fianna Fáil at UCD and joined the national executive on graduation.

Double Irish

O'Rourke was once labeled the "great architect" of the ''Double Irish'' base erosion and profit shifting ("BEPS") tool, as used by U.S. multinationals in Ireland such as Google, a known client of O'Rourke's, Facebook, and Apple. O'Rourke's work on Google's BEPS tools featured in a 2018 book by Richard Brooks:

The €13 billion fine levied by the EU Commission on Apple's ''Double Irish'' BEPS tool, for Irish taxes avoided from 2004 to 2014, is the largest corporate tax fine in history. O'Rourke's PwC (Ireland) tax practice represented the Irish State in its tax defence, during the commission's Apple investigation. O'Rourke rejects the labels, but also rejects the notion that the Irish tax code shouldn't legally, and transparently, exploit loopholes in the US tax code:

Other Irish financial commentators have taken a different view on this strategy:

In October 2013, O'Rourke predicted the end of the ''Double Irish'', which was closed to new entrants in January 2015. New Irish BEPS tools replaced it: the '' Single Malt'' scheme (used by Microsoft and Allergan), and the '' Capital Allowances for Intangible Assets'' ("CAIA") scheme, (used by Apple in its Q1 2015 restructuring). It was O'Rourke's 2009 ''Commission on Taxation'', that recommended expanding Irish capital allowances tax scheme to intangible assets creating the ''CAIA'' BEPS tool in the 2009 ''Finance Act''. Accenture was an early user of the ''CAIA'' BEPS tool, when it executed the first corporate tax inversion to Ireland in 2009.

Effective tax rates

In January 2014, O'Rourke publicly defended Ireland's BEPS tools, when the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) method of calculating ''effective tax rates'' (ETRs), showed Ireland's corporate ETR was between 2.2% to 3.8%. It renewed international controversy on Ireland as a corporate tax haven. O'Rourke defended Ireland's ETR as being close to the headline Irish corporate tax rate of 12.5%, and quoted the World Bank/PwC survey. In one February 2014 radio interview, O'Rourke asserted that "there was a hole the size of the Grand Canyon", in the BEA analysis of Ireland's ETR.

The disconnect lies in the distinction between Ireland's corporation tax "regime" versus Ireland's corporation tax "rate", which was highlighted by the EU Commission's 2016 findings against Apple's double Irish tax system in Ireland. According to the Irish Revenue, Apple had been paying the full Irish 12.5% tax rate on what Revenue considered to be "taxable profits" in Ireland The EU Commission found a very different situation:

Experts note the potency of Ireland's '' corporation tax regime'', and O'Rourke's BEPS tools, as opposed to the ''headline'' 12.5% corporate tax rate.Misleadingly, studies cited by ''The Irish Times'' and other outlets suggest that the effective tax rate is close to the headline 12.5 percent rate – but this is a fictional result based on a theoretical 'standard firm with 60 employees' and no exports: it is entirely inapplicable to transnationals. Though there are various ways to calculate effective tax rates, other studies find rates of just 2.5–4.5 percent.

Legacy

The ETRs of 0–2.5% from O'Rourke's BEPS tools have drawn international criticism. Academic research has shown Ireland as a major tax haven, and in June 2018 tax academics showed Ireland to be the largest global tax haven, helping U.S. multinationals to shield over $100 billion in annual profits from Irish and U.S. taxation.

O'Rourke's defense of Ireland's low corporate ETRs for U.S.–controlled multinationals is part of Ireland's " green jersey agenda" to advance " Ireland Inc." over other potential consequences, such as reputation or financial risk, which is not an uncommon political strategy in Ireland.

Regardless of the tax losses to other nations, O'Rourke's BEPS tools have brought prosperity to Ireland. 25 of Ireland's top 50 firms (by turnover) are U.S.–controlled multinationals, employing one quarter of Ireland's private sector workforce, paying 80% of Irish business taxes, and creating 57% of Irish private sector non-farm value-add in Ireland. (see low tax economy). O'Rourke's BEPS tools however have been less effective in attracting non–U.S. multinationals to Ireland, or more accurately, multinationals from "territorial" tax systems (e.g. the U.K post their 2009 transformation to a "territorial" tax system).

Bloomberg noted in October 2013 that O'Rourke is regarded a "hero" in Ireland. He is a sought after commentator on the Irish economy, and on Irish corporate taxation policy. O'Rourke has sat on several major Irish State taxation review groups, including the major 2009 ''Commission on Taxation'', and is one of the 5 people named in Ireland's ''"Independent Persons of Standing"'' list under the Double Taxation Arbitration Convention.

In February 2014, he was named in ''The Irish Times'' 50 people who run Ireland list. O'Rourke sits on the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, the lobby group for U.S. multinationals in Ireland. In March 2018, he noted the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 will be a challenge to Ireland's U.S. economic model but that Ireland should be able to withstand it. In April 2018, he advised that the Irish State should build a rainy day fund. O'Rourke maintains an active Twitter account.

See also

* EU illegal state aid case against Apple in Ireland

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ORourke, Feargal
1965 births
Living people
Alumni of University College Dublin
Corporate tax avoidance
International taxation
Irish chief executives
People educated at Marist College, Athlone
People from Athlone
Taxation in the Republic of Ireland
Tax avoidance
21st-century Irish people