GOOGLE CUT its taxes by $3.1 billion (€2.2 billion) in the last three years by using a strategy known as the “Double Irish”, under which it shuttled foreign profits through its Irish operation to Bermuda.
Google’s “income shifting” helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4 per cent, the lowest of the top five US technology companies, according to regulatory filings in six countries.
Google’s tax reduction method takes advantage of Irish tax law to legally move profits in and out of subsidiaries here, eventually lodging them in island havens that levy no corporate income taxes.
Companies that use the “Double Irish” arrangement – so named because it relies on two Irish companies – avoid taxes at home and abroad.
Facebook is preparing a similar structure that will send earnings from Ireland to the Cayman Islands, according to its filings in the Caymans and Ireland.
The strategy yesterday attracted criticism in the US, which is struggling to close a projected $1.4 trillion budget gap. The US has a corporate tax rate of 35 per cent.
The tactics of Google, which employs almost 2,000 people in Dublin, and Facebook depend on “transfer pricing” – paper transactions among a company’s subsidiaries that allow for the allocation of income to tax havens while attributing expenses to higher-tax countries.
International income shifting helped cut Google’s overall effective tax rate to 22.2 per cent last year. The company also shifted income through the Netherlands, in a technique known as the “Dutch Sandwich” because it sees the country acting as a stopover between two other jurisdictions.
“It’s remarkable that Google’s effective rate is that low,” said Martin Sullivan, a tax economist who formerly worked for the US treasury department.
A spokesman for the Department of Finance declined to comment specifically on Google’s strategies.
“Ireland always seeks to ensure that the profits charged in Ireland fully reflect the functions, assets and risks located here by multinational groups,” he said.
A Google spokeswoman said that the firm’s practices were “very similar to those at countless other global companies” operating across a wide range of industries.
Google’s Irish business provides technical, sales and operations support to customers in more than 50 countries. Last year, the Dublin-based company posted profits of €47.5 million, up almost fivefold on the previous 12 months.
Google paid taxes of € 18.3 million in Ireland last year, up from €8.1 million in 2008.
by SpiritLeo 13 years ago
Probably most of you have noticed that Google has made some search changes.Some time ago I came across an interesting article on webpronews.com and I would love to share it with you and find out your opinion about this change.I would like to quote:[...Last week, the search giant said that it would...
by rhamson 9 years ago
"All we know (based on leaks) is (1) it establishes an independent tribunal that can force nations to pay global corporations any lost profits due to that nation’s health, safety, environmental, labor, or securities regulations, (2) extends patent protections for U.S. pharmaceutical companies,...
by SEO Ibiza 14 years ago
seen this?http://searchnewscentral.com/2011071417 … pages.html
by Brian 14 years ago
This may not be news to a whole lot of people, but, I am getting sick of this. Why isn't the Government doing anything about it, especially when they know that it is killing our economy? Not, to mention that we are fighting wars over it, only to have the countries we are "Aiding" are...
by Paul Goodman 5 years ago
Neil Patel's take on the recent algo changes. It's a good read. He analyses the effects of the changes and what actions can be taken. Like HP, he also emphasizes the importance of regular editing. Link below:Google’s May 2020 Core Update: What You Need to Know
by ScarletRyan1970 15 years ago
NO.
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |