KPMG has gone to the courts to stop a protest by Debenham workers who are demanding proper redundancy payments. They want to use the full force of the Gardai to break the workers
But who exactly are KPMG?
They are one of the big four global accountancy firms, earning about €26 billion a year.
One of their main lines of business is giving advice to wealthy individuals and corporations on how to dodge their tax bill.
A US Senate investigation found that ‘KPMG had an extensive organisational structure for developing and marketing tax avoidance schemes.’ These included a ‘Tax Innovation Centre’ and an ‘Idea Bank’ to think up new schemes. Its Sales Opportunity Centre rang up corporations with a standard patter on how their schemes could save vast amounts of money
KPMG Ireland pioneered a special scheme so that wealthy individuals did not have to pay the 20% Capital Gains Tax from selling shares.
Take the case of Lorraine Kinsella and her husband, Shane Ryan, son of the founder of Ryanair who wanted to sell shares and pay little tax.
KPMG advised them that Ms Kinsella could take up residence in a ‘tiny apartment’ in Rome and register as living there. Soon afterwards she purchased Ryanair shares worth €18 million from her husband, using funds loaned to her by him. She then sold the shares on to a third party for more than €19 million, and paid tax in Italy of less than €40,000.
Yet despite these tax dodging activities which deprive the state of revenue, KPMG is making a fortune on ‘consultancy workers for the Irish state’.
Here are some of their lucrative gains:
- KPMG got € 11 million for advice on a National Broadband Plan which ended up a complete mess, costing Irish taxpayers €3billion.
- KPMG Got €13 billion form the Central Bank for consultancy work in the period 2012-2017.
- KPMG was paid €200,000 for IT advice and consultancy by the Department of Public Expenditure.
- KPMG was paid €200,00 by the Department of Communications for advice on a national gas grid
Why should we allow a company that blatantly attacks workers rights and helps corporations dodge tax, leech of the Irish state.
It is time to call a halt. Get this giant squid off our backs.
