Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan promised to amend the country’s corporate tax laws, trying to calm a controversy over how U.S. companies use the nation to lower their tax bills. “I will be bringing forward a change to ensure that Irish registered companies cannot be ‘stateless’ in terms of their place of tax residency,” Noonan said in Dublin as part of the 2014 budget Tuesday. “Ireland wants to be part of the solution to this global tax challenge, not part of the problem.” U.S. senators John McCain and Carl Levin in hearings in March labeled Ireland a tax haven. Apple reduced its tax bill by setting up a unit in Cork, which didn’t declare tax residency in Ireland because it’s neither managed nor controlled in the country, according to Senate hearings. As the unit is incorporated in Ireland, it’s not a U.S. tax resident. Investigations found that Apple avoided paying income tax on billions of dollars of profit during the past four years in part by moving patent rights to a web of offshore subsidiaries. The company said it doesn’t use “tax gimmicks.” The proposed changes “will not impact on any Irish incorporated companies that may be tax resident in another low tax jurisdiction,” said Peter Vale, a tax partner with Grant Thornton in Dublin. “However, it sends out the right message in terms of Ireland’s desire to be part of the global initiative to resolve global tax inequities.” Tax Residence While some companies like Apple cut their tax bills using Irish subsidiaries that don’t declare tax residency anywhere in the world, others do so in zero-tax or low tax jurisdictions. LinkedIn, for example, cuts its global tax bill by paying tens of millions of dollars a year in royalties to an Irish unit that declares its tax residence in the Isle of Man, corporate filings show. Noonan said Ireland is “100% committed” to its 12.5% company tax rate. Andrea Nahles, general secretary of Germany’s Social Democrats party, which is in talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel to form a coalition government, said Monday that Ireland’s corporate tax rate “is simply too low.” Ireland’s company tax regime “is under siege,” said Michael McGrath, finance spokesman with Fianna Fail, the nation’s largest opposition party. “None of us should be complacent about the mutterings we are hearing from Germany.” Image: Joan Carles Martorell Obamacare Needs a Drop-Dead Date London's Wealthy Seek Slice of Downton as Prices Rise U.S. May Join Germany of 1933 in Pantheon of Defaults Patients Pay Before Seeing Doctor as Deductibles Spread This article originally published at Bloomberg here

It's not just the National Security Agency spying on smartphones. Many ordinary people are also using sophisticated software to eavesdrop on the wireless communications of their lovers, children and business rivals.

According to a new study that examined the data traffic of mobile devices operating on the Middle Eastern network of a European carrier, hundreds of people had some form of surveillance software installed on their phones.

These aren't malicious apps that the users had been tricked into downloading. They're pieces of commercially available spyware that people with physical access to the devices have installed to secretly log each text message, phone call and contact, and in some cases, eavesdrop on calls in real time.

Most of the installations were probably done by spouses and private investigators, according to Michael Shaulov, CEO of Lacoon Mobile Security, the San Francisco-based startup that did the study. Although the number of phones with spyware was relatively small — more than 600 — Shaulov expects that figure to grow amid increasing awareness of surveillance technology, be it at the consumer or national level. Lacoon, which does research and development in Israel, sells security software that detects malicious mobile applications and attacks on corporate networks.

The findings offer a rare insight into consumers' use of spying techniques that traditionally have been limited to the realm of government spy agencies.Bloomberg News last year examined the use of surveillance software by repressive regimes in a series of stories called "Wired for Repression." Corporate espionage is a growing motivation for installing spyware.

Lacoon, founded in 2011 by former members of the Israel Defense Forces and backed by prominent Israeli security entrepreneur Shlomo Kramer, analyzed the mobile traffic with permission from the carrier, which Shaulov wouldn't identify. Lacoon looked at the wireless traffic to determine how many devices were communicating with servers known to be associated with spyware companies.

Nearly half of those that did were linked to SpyToMobile, which markets its product to consumers. While it's generally not illegal to spy on phones you own, things get murky when the spying involves phones you routinely have access to, like a partner's.

The company's terms of service states that users need to own the phones the software is being installed on, or the users need to have written authorization from the target. SpyToMobile said via email that all users must agree to its terms of service and that it has suspended accounts found to have used the app without the device owners' permission.

For its part, SpyToMobile is actually using the NSA spy scandal in its sales pitch, although the company said it does not share data with the NSA. At least, not knowingly.

Image: Andrew Rennie

• Obamacare Needs a Drop-Dead Date
• London's Wealthy Seek Slice of Downton as Prices Rise
• U.S. May Join Germany of 1933 in Pantheon of Defaults
• Patients Pay Before Seeing Doctor as Deductibles Spread

This article originally published at Bloomberg here