Key facts
| Item | Rate / rule |
|---|---|
| Corporate tax - trading income | 12.5% |
| Corporate tax - passive income | 25% |
| Global minimum (groups ≥ €750m) | Topped up to 15% |
| Foreign dividends received | Participation exemption since 1 Jan 2025 |
| Gains on ≥5% subsidiaries (EU/treaty) | Exempt (TCA s.626B) |
| Dividend withholding | 25% headline; broad exemptions → typically 0% |
| Tax treaties | 78 signed, 75 in effect |
The paradox
The ~48% in our ranking is the sum of two layers: 12.5% at the company plus marginal income tax when a resident individual takes the dividend. A multinational group never triggers the second layer. Profit flows corporate-to-corporate: taxed once at 12.5%, then out to the foreign parent with the withholding removed by exemptions. The number that scares an owner-manager is simply not part of a group’s arithmetic.[1][2]
The toolkit
The tax half: 12.5% on trading income; a participation exemption on capital gains from ≥5% shareholdings in EU or treaty-country subsidiaries (TCA s.626B, since 2004); and since 1 January 2025 a participation exemption for foreign dividends (until 2025 they were taxed with a credit, a long-standing gap against the Netherlands and Luxembourg that has now closed). On the way out, the 25% dividend withholding comes with exemptions so broad, EU and treaty-resident companies among them, that flows to a genuine foreign parent typically leave at 0%, and most interest and royalty payments also escape withholding.[1][5][4][2][3]
The non-tax half matters as much: 78 signed tax treaties (75 in effect) including an intact treaty with the US, English-language common law, an EU-passporting regulator in the Central Bank of Ireland, and the agglomeration effect of nearly every large US technology and pharmaceutical group already running its EMEA business from Dublin or Cork.[6]
Ireland vs the 9% club
Hungary charges 9% and Bulgaria 10% - so why do holdings keep choosing 12.5% Ireland? Three reasons. Pillar Two: for groups above €750m every EU rate is topped up to 15% since 2024, deleting the headline advantage exactly where the big money is. Treaties: Hungary lost its US treaty in 2024; Ireland’s network is intact. Practical frictions: Hungary levies a financial transaction duty, and its 9% rate is precisely the trigger level for the Dutch conditional withholding tax; Ireland has neither problem. The Interactive Brokers consolidation, Budapest into Dublin, is the case study of all three at once.[9][7][6][8]
What Ireland does not give you
The 12.5% applies to trading income earned through real Irish activity - passive income pays 25%, and profit routed through an empty Irish company is what transfer-pricing and anti-abuse rules were written to catch. For groups above €750m the effective minimum is 15%. And Ireland does nothing for an owner who wants to live off dividends: a resident individual pays marginal income tax rates on them, which is why Ireland sits low in our personal ranking while dominating the corporate one. The aggressive-era schemes, the “Double Irish” above all, were closed by 2020; what remains is a competitive but compliant regime.[1][9]
よくある質問
Is Ireland’s 12.5% still real after the global minimum tax?
For groups below €750m of revenue, yes - 12.5% applies in full. Above the threshold, profit is topped up to 15%, still among the lowest compliant rates in the EU, and the rest of the toolkit (treaties, participation exemptions, 0% effective outbound withholding) is unaffected.
Does Ireland withhold tax on dividends leaving the country?
The headline dividend withholding tax is 25%, but exemptions cover Irish-resident companies, EU parent-subsidiary cases and treaty residents - so dividends to a genuine foreign corporate parent typically leave at 0%.
Why pick Ireland over Hungary’s 9%?
Because for large groups the 15% global minimum makes the two rates identical, and everything else favours Ireland: an intact US treaty and a 78-treaty network, no financial transaction duty, an English-speaking common-law system and Europe’s deepest financial-services ecosystem.
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