A while back there was a simple scheme available that allowed you to avoid taxes on the first few hundred thousand / million of taxes.

- You created an LLC in Cyprus and transferred some IP (usually a trademark) to it

- You licensed that IP to your LLC in an EU country for the amount that basically erased any profit that LLC made

- Cypriot LLCs were not taxed on non-Cyprus income

- Each of non-resident director (or board member, I don't remember) of a Cypriot LLC was not taxed on first 400k euro of income from those LLCs. Double taxation deals Cyprus had protected you from being taxed on that income back home.

I know this is no longer possible with Cyprus, but a variation of that is now happening with e.g. many EU clothing brands having their brand ownership transferred to Egyptian LLCs.

isn't this similar to what Apple and others are doing in Ireland?

I don’t think this is possible under the latest rules, especially in the EU. But a small firm could easily get bad advice and think it’s outsmarting the system. Right now in the EU, it’s either pay or leave completely.