Terry Clune: How the taxman helped me make €90m

Terry Clune started out giving tax advice to students for £25 a go. now his company, Taxback.com, is a 24-hour operation with turnover approaching €90m.

Terry Clune, 37, just can't stop making money. At the age of seven, he collected sacks from local farmers and sold them on to a local timber merchant. At 20, he ran discos at Trinity College Dublin, using the money to buy his first computer. Now he heads up one of Ireland's fastest-growing businesses, €90m-a-year tax services firm Taxback.com.

Clune got the idea of becoming a tax expert from one of the entrepreneurial ventures he experimented with at university. As a second-year business student in Dublin, he organised for 110 classmates to go to work in Germany. "I charged £200, sorted out work and accommodation and just about broke even." But by the end of the summer, "they were all going crazy about the taxes they were paying and blaming me for it". With income tax at 55%, the students were getting just £45 back for every £100 they earned. But there was a loophole, which he now sought to exploit. "I knew that if you didn't exceed your tax-free allowance, you could claim some of your tax back. So I contacted the German tax office."

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Jody Clarke

Jody studied at the University of Limerick and was a senior writer for MoneyWeek. Jody is experienced in interviewing, for example digging into the lives of an ex-M15 agent and quirky business owners who have made millions. Jody’s other areas of expertise include advice on funds, stocks and house prices.