*EU readies first shadow banking reform. LONDON, May 23- About half of the European Union's trillion euro money market funds would have to set aside a chunk of cash under a proposed EU reform to make a run on a fund in rocky markets less likely.
SAN FRANCISCO/ DUBLIN, May 23- Apple has operated almost tax-free in Ireland since 1980, welcomed by a government keen to bring jobs to what was then one of Europe's poorest country, former company executives and Irish officials have said. Apple must have seemed attractive to Ireland and to Cork.
*Irish government calls Senate report "wrong and misleading". Ireland has been forced to defend its corporate tax rate after the Senate said on Monday that Apple paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits channelled through Irish subsidiaries and that it had negotiated a special corporate tax rate of less than 2 percent. 1/ 2 ID: nL2N0E20Y1 3/ 8.
*Austria to end bank secrecy for foreigners this year. BRUSSELS, May 22- Europe edged closer to lifting banking secrecy on Wednesday after Austria said it was ready to share data on foreign depositors but Vienna's support could fade should efforts to strike a similar deal with Switzerland fail.
*Ireland takes rare aim at multinationals' tax rates. Bruton's call for an international clampdown on aggressive tax planning by large corporates is a rare negative shot at a sector that Ireland has courted for decades and underscores the high stakes for Dublin, which faces pressure to act alone.
DUBLIN, May 22- Ireland's finance minister said on Wednesday the country did not want to become the' whipping boy' for what he called a flawed U.S. Senate report into the level of corporate tax Apple Inc pays in Ireland.
*Apple, Amazon, Google among corporations in the spotlight. BRUSSELS, May 22- Britain, France and Germany called for stricter rules to stop companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon aggressively avoiding taxes in austerity bitten Europe, while acknowledging they had done nothing unlawful.
*Favourable market conditions may be temporary- Moody's.
DUBLIN, May 22- Ireland called on Wednesday for an international clampdown on multinationals shifting profits around the world to avoid tax, after criticism that Irish loopholes helped technology giant Apple to shrink its tax bill.
BRUSSELS, May 22- European leaders will discuss how to combat aggressive tax avoidance by major companies such as Amazon, Google and Apple at a summit on Wednesday, and cut the estimated 1 trillion euros a year the EU loses to tax evasion or avoidance.
DUBLIN, May 22- The international community needs to work together to stop large multinationals aggressively playing one country's tax code off against another, Ireland's Minister for Enterprise said on Wednesday.
While Europe has shale plans of its own, there is as yet no unified EU policy. The reserves will be far harder to extract than in the United States and the final cost to consumers is likely to be substantially higher so Europe will not be able to free itself of dependence on gas imports from Russia any time soon.
BRUSSELS/ PARIS, May 21- Growing concern in European capitals about aggressive tax avoidance by high-profile corporations such as Amazon, Google and Apple looks set to steal the agenda of a European Union summit in Brussels on Wednesday.
MOSCOW, May 22- Foreign banks that once treated Russia as virgin land where easy money could be made are now finding it a cut-throat market tougher than some bargained for.
Apple tax head Phillip Bullock told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Tuesday that one of those companies, Apple Operations International, though it was functionally managed in the United States, had not submitted a tax return anywhere for five years.
WASHINGTON, May 21- Apple Inc came under fire on Tuesday at a Senate hearing over an investigation that alleged the U.S. high technology icon has kept billions of dollars in profits in Irish subsidiaries and paid little or no taxes to any government.
*U.S. Senate subcommittee says Apple paid no tax on $29.9 bln dividends. CORK/ DUBLIN, May 21- Ireland said on Tuesday it was not to blame for Apple Inc's low global tax payments and had no special rate deal with the company after the U.S. Senate said it paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits stashed in Irish subsidiaries.
Apple Operations International, Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe, through which much of the group's overseas income flows, are all incorporated in Ireland but are not deemed to be tax resident there, the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said.