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Tax

About the Department


Our tax department is significantly the largest tax practice group amongst Irish law firms.  In contrast to the tax departments of other Irish law firms, our tax department operates primarily as a “front-end” service. Significantly more than half of our work is on transactions or advisory matters where our tax professionals have the sole or lead role. We also advise on the taxation aspects of transactions as part of a multi-disciplinary team with lawyers from other groups within the firm. We often act as special tax counsel in transactions where clients require specialised tax advice and are not comfortable using the tax department of their existing legal advisers. We do not provide tax compliance services. 

We are the only Irish law firm to have a dedicated international tax group. This advises on cross-border transactions in conjunction with legal and tax counsel from other jurisdictions and we have committed considerable resources to building and maintaining good relationships with these lawyers.

The department advises many leading domestic and international corporations and financial institutions doing business in and through Ireland. We focus on the timely delivery and implementation of integrated leading edge tax advice. Our philosophy is “can do” – if there is a solution we will find it and it will be practicable and capable of being implemented.

We are consistently ranked as the leading tax law firm in Ireland by the European Legal 500, Chambers Global, PLC Which Lawyer?, American Lawyer, Directors Tax Handbook, World Tax and International Tax Review.

Practice Areas

General Corporate Tax

We advise leading Irish and international companies across all industries with respect to their inward investment into Ireland, international tax and cross-border planning, corporate reorganisations and restructurings, M&A, demergers, flotations, private equity and joint ventures.

Transfer Pricing

We are the only law firm in Ireland with a significant transfer pricing practice. Examples of our work in this area include advising on the first transfer pricing adjustment completed under Irish law, the first multi-lateral transfer pricing adjustment completed under Irish law, and the ground-breaking claim by a non-treaty resident company to correlative relief under an Irish tax treaty.  We acted for a number of US multinationals in connection with the judgment of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal in Xilinx v CIR.

Finance Tax

Our finance tax practice covers a broad spectrum of debt based work including banking, structured finance, securitisation, repackaging, debt capital markets, asset finance, project finance and derivatives.

In league tables published each year since 2005 by international financial publisher, Thomson Financial, Matheson Ormsby Prentice was recognised as having advised more issuers of specialist debt securities in international debt issuance transactions than any other law firm in Europe.

VAT and Indirect Tax

We provide both contentious and advisory VAT advice. We act on a broad range of cases including appeals before the Appeal Commissioners, judicial review applications to the High Court, appeals to the Supreme Court and cases before the European courts. Contentious matters range from the establishment of the VAT treatment for invoice discounting and factoring in Ireland, the application of VAT to various property structures, the Customs Duty classification of internet security devices and the defending of claims for Customs Duty on withdrawal of GSP preference. On the advisory side, we advise on VAT compliance and structuring in a wide range of industries, including financial services, property, retail, travel agency, software and aerospace.

Real Estate Tax

Although primarily focused on general corporate and finance related work, our tax department provides a full range of taxation advisory services to our many clients doing business in and through Ireland. This includes real estate taxation, where we act for various consortia of Irish investors in relation to acquisitions and disposals of commercial property portfolios, and also development and financing.

Tax Controversy and Tax Litigation

We have extensive experience in conducting tax controversy work including Revenue negotiations and tax efficient dispute resolution. We have been involved in some recent high profile tax litigation in the High Court. Certain contentious tax work does not proceed to litigation. 

Irish Tax Capability in the United States

We are the only Irish law firm to have Irish tax capability in the United States. In 2007, Mark O’Sullivan, a partner in the firm’s tax department, was appointed head of the firm’s US offices. Since 1 August 2007, Mark has been based in the firm’s office in Palo Alto, California.

Representative Transactions


As tax is a sensitive and confidential topic for many clients, in many cases we are unable to give specific details of particular projects we have undertaken. However, our experience in recent transactions includes advising companies in the following sectors;

  • finance and insurance;
  • pharmaceutical;
  • fast moving consumer goods;
  • technology;
  • contract catering;
  • energy;
  • utilities;
  • transport;
  • healthcare;
  • chemical;
  • real estate;
  • manufacturing.

We have also advised on the tax aspects of a significant number of private corporate transactions (including certain buy-outs of high-value minority positions and transactions to transfer high-value family-owned businesses to the next generation).

Some of our recent public transactions in the area of Tax Controversy and Tax Litigation include:

  • advising a major bank in relation to regulatory inquiries ongoing since 1998 in relation to its banking activities;
  • advising various US multinationals on the implications of the Xilinx case before the US Ninth Circuit (judgment subsequently reversed by the US Ninth Circuit);
  • representing National Irish Bank in its successful challenge to the Revenue Commissioners on obtaining information held by its Isle of Man branch (currently on appeal to the Supreme Court);
  • advising leading investment banks in respect of stamp duty investigations initiated by the Revenue Commissioners;
  • representing RSA Security Systems in its application to the European Court of First Instance, seeking the annulment of EU Commission Regulation 888/2006;
  • representing Hagemeyer Ireland plc in its successful judicial review proceedings before the High Court overturning the previous Revenue practice in relation to the VAT treatment of invoice discounting and factoring operations.

 Please click here to access the Tax Group Brochure