The tax arrangements of multi-national corporations have rarely been out of the headlines over the past two years. Taxpayers in Europe and the US have marvelled at the ingenuity of schemes that allow companies to avoid paying their dues where they do business, and ground their teeth at the impact of this legally sanctioned legerdemain on national coffers.

Now the European Commission has stepped in to examine the tax affairs of three large multi-nationals in different EU member states. It wishes to probe the arrangements of Apple in Ireland, Starbucks in the Netherlands and Fiat Finance and Trade, a financing subsidiary of the international carmaker, in Luxembourg.

The commission’s remit is perforce limited. Corporate taxation is a matter reserved to national governments and should remain so.