Ms Kate Levey:

The idea of double taxation is to deal with a company that operates in two different jurisdictions. It can sometimes be taxed in both jurisdictions in respect of the same income. Let me give an example of a company that manufactures violins in Ireland but sells them into the German market through a shop in Germany. Germany might be taxing the sales receipts in respect of those violins as would Ireland. Ireland has a tax treaty with other countries and on the basis of the tax treaty, one shares the taxing rights between the two countries to make sure that the same income is not taxed twice.