Google has announced it is to drop the Irish tax scheme it has used for several years to divert its taxable profits into low-tax jurisdictions. The scheme is based on a quirk in the Irish tax code that allowed companies to incorporate there while remaining tax-resident elsewhere, so intellectual property could be placed in Irish subsidiaries that were not taxed either there or in the US. Ireland abolished the exemption for new companies in 2015, but allowed those already using it to continue until the end of 2020.