How Much Tax Do Google Pay In Ireland?

[barney15c]

Google paid £6m corporation tax on £3.2bn turnover in the UK. As this was diverted to the ROI one would expect the tax the Irish Government collected would be significantly higher, does anyone know how much this is or where one could find out on the net?

[barney15c]

Looks like they are thieving from the Irish as well according to their 2009 Irish accounts, check out their administrative expenses as a proportion of their gross profit. Totally morally bankrupt company.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/interactive/2011/mar/24/google-accounts

[ABerrant]

Google Ireland had a turnover of €47.44bn between 2005 and 2011 and paid a total tax bill of just €69.91 million, a rate of 0.14% where the headline rate of Corporation Tax is meant to be 12.5% but which can be legally circumvented by use of the "double Irish arrangement".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement

[LazyGun]

And incidentally - this gives a lie to the oft repeated assertion of those who claim that if only we were to lower corporation tax, Britain would become a land of milk and honey, overflowing with inward investment, eager to reap the rewards of low corporation tax.

Ireland -12.5% Corporation tax - This is not just shaving a percentage point from the competition - this is halving the rate - and still corporations divert funds in order to avoid paying.

Multinational corporate companies are rapacious with no conscience, regardless of little corporate straplines like Googles "Do no Evil" or whatever trite inconsequentiality they parrot....

[barney15c]

Looked at ABerrant's link:
Other companies involved in this tax avoidance scheme include:

Apple Inc.
Eli Lilly and Company
Facebook
Forest Laboratories
Microsoft
Oracle Corp.
Pfizer Inc.
Adobe Systems
Nederlandse Spoorwegen

So pretty much all of them US companies bar the last.
Thieving b@st@rds all of them.

[barney15c]

From the Guardian 2011:

"Bloomberg last year found that Google had cut its taxes by $3.1bon in the past three years using income shifting. Strategies known to lawyers as the "Double Irish" and the "Dutch Sandwich" helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4% – the lowest of the top five US technology companies by market capitalisation – according to regulatory filings in six countries."

Time government's got a grip of this....

[Kevink]

The problem is that in order to stop this sort of thing, you need an International regulatory framework. And we all know what happens when the UK gets involved in that sort of thing: a bunch of swivel-eyed loons start offering to buy you a warm beer in the local pub.

[factor-fiction]

I'm not trying to defend Google at all but I just wanted to comment on the following point raised by ABerrant

> "Google Ireland had a turnover of €47.44bn between 2005 and 2011 and paid a total tax bill of just €69.91 million, a rate of 0.14% where the headline rate of Corporation Tax is meant to be 12.5%"

I wanted to point out that corporation tax is based on profit not turnover so it's meaningless to compare the 0.14% with the 12.5% rate. However I'm sure a comparison of what they have paid compared with what they should have paid at the prevailing rate would confirm a significant level of avoidance.

I don't think there are any easy answers to this though- I agree with what KevinK has just said.

[LazyGun]

Fair point, F-F. Still think they fall short of even 12.5% corporation tax though :)

Owen Jones has written an interesting article in the Independent on this issue. Worth a read, I think...

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-moral-case-on-tax-avoidance-is-overwhelming--and-we-all-know-google-wants-to-do-the-right-thing-8622565.html

[LazyGun]

Just to add- You can tell the multinationals are more than a litle uneasy at the focus on their tax affairs and the public anger over their avoidance schemes, when they start lecturing Cameron over moralising over tax - a situation that is too complex for the public to properly understand :)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/20/david-cameron-tax-avoidance-multinationals

[barney15c]

So big Companies would encourage stricter tax rules and loopholes closed. Get real!!! Its a game of cat and mouse, could you seriously see clever lawyers and accountants stopping thier dubious practice of finding ever elaborate and devious ways of avoiding tax. The president of the CBI and these multinational executives are just spinning their smoke and mirror lies again. Anyone with half a brain can tell you these practices are endemic and will be impossible to eradicate...just look to the bankers to see how they have clung onto their bonuses after the damage they have done to the global economy. Roger Carr is living in cloud cuckoo land.

[LazyGun]

Ermm - why are you telling me to get real, Barney?

[barney15c]

Wasnt directed at you LazyGun :) I was emphasising that whatever was done to tighten tax rules, companies would 'still' seek to reduce their contributions.