Google’s Irish subsidiary has agreed to pay 218 million euros (183 million pounds) in tax supplement to the Irish government. According to company documents.
This American technology company is accused of avoiding hundreds of millions of taxes nationwide Europe Through the loophole known as the “Irish and Dutch double sandwich”, it said that it has “agreed to resolve certain tax issues related to previous years.”
Google Ireland Said that it will pay 622 million euros in corporate tax in 2020, including 218 million euros in retrospective settlement and interest expenses. Google Ireland paid 263 million euros in taxes the previous year.
According to a 2015 law, the company is part of the parent company Alphabet. Last year promised to abandon the vulnerability strategy, Which allows it to effectively transfer the entire European income from overseas to places like Bermuda, where the tax rate is zero. Bloomberg Survey Show that the plan allows Google to reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4%.
Google did not explain the reason for the tax payment in its account, nor did it respond to a request for comment. In the document, it only said: “After the end of the year, the company agreed to resolve certain tax issues related to previous years. The tax liability and related interest are recognized in the current fiscal year.”
Paul Monaghan, CEO of the Fair Tax Foundation, said: “Alphabet’s taxation practices do have a shameful lack of transparency, especially at the level of the Irish subsidiary. Stakeholders have the right to know about this Irish company’s tax settlement. What is it related to.
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“Investors in particular should worry that Alphabet’s documents in the United States show that it has billions of dollars in disputes with tax authorities around the world. According to its own definition, its chance of winning is less than 50%.”
Ireland provided low-tax European headquarters for many of the world’s largest multinational companies, and initially refused to sign Agreement of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development By 2023, the world’s lowest corporate tax rate is 15%, but Gave up the boycott of the plan After making changes to the text.
Most of the 140 countries involved in the negotiations have joined the agreement, which aims to end countries that have eroded the interests of neighboring countries by providing companies with lower taxes for decades.
According to the accounts, Google Ireland Limited’s pre-tax profit in 2020 was 2.85 billion euros, higher than 2019’s 1.94 billion euros. Turnover increased by 2.7 billion euros to 48.4 billion euros.
