The reason EU cracked down on Ireland is because it offered special deals where Microsoft and other select multinationals got to pay lower corporate tax rate th

The reason EU cracked down on Ireland is because it offered special deals where Microsoft and other select multinationals got to pay lower corporate tax rate than other companies incorporated in Ireland. Ireland is being pressured by EU regulators because offering lower tax for only certain companies is a form of _state subsidy_ that results in _market distortion_. Ikea, the Swedish company that is a pioneer in now-common aggressive profit shifting practices, is not being pursued by EU since it doesn't have a special deal with the Netherlands (where Ikea has a paper company that gets all of its profit shovelled into) where it gets to pay lower corporate tax than other companies incorporated in the Netherlands.