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Google's 'Dutch Sandwich' Shielded 16 Billion Euros From Tax (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the what's-happening? dept.

Google moved 15.9 billion euros ($19.2 billion) to a Bermuda shell company in 2016, saving at least $3.7 billion in taxes that year, regulatory filings in the Netherlands show. From a report: Google uses two structures, known as a "Double Irish" and a "Dutch Sandwich," to shield the majority of its international profits from taxation. The setup involves shifting revenue from one Irish subsidiary to a Dutch company with no employees, and then on to a Bermuda mailbox owned by another Ireland-registered company. The amount of money Google moved through this tax structure in 2016 was 7 percent higher than the year before, according to company filings with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce dated Dec. 22 and which were made available online Tuesday.

8 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Nice by tripleevenfall · · Score: 5, Funny

    This dovetails nicely with all the "We love social justice!" TV commercials that Google was running during football games this past weekend.

    1. Re:Nice by sycodon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Instead of Don't be Evil it's Don't Pay Taxes.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    2. Re:Nice by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 5, Funny

      Instead of Don't be Evil it's Don't Pay Taxes.

      Nah, it really comes down to "what do you really mean by evil and in what jurisdiction?"

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    3. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Google spends money on AI research, robotics, parallel computing, and information access.

      cut

      I prefer that Google keeps as much money as they can.

      Google can do that precisely because of the having the security of a working democratic nation state in which to operate. You think they could do all the AI research, robotics, parallel computing and information access in a failed state like Somalia or Yemen ? That has a cost, it's called taxes. Don't wanna pay taxes ? You're free to offshore your entire company to Somalia. Lets see how that works out ok ?

  2. The real injustice here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is that perfectly-legal tax-avoidance strategies like this one aren't available to lower and middle class employees.

    1. Re:The real injustice here by Wootery · · Score: 5, Funny

      If only western governments were starved of the tax funds they need in order to function! We'd finally have our libertarian utopia!

  3. Re:If the laws allow them to do this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't afford to bribe politicians like google can.

  4. Re:How is this not fraud? by johannesg · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Netherlands gets a little bit of extra money from this, yes. Of course those billions do get added to our GNP, which means that any costs that are GNP-related (such as EU-membership, NATO membership, and third world aid) also go up immediately. I don't know how much Google is paying, but it's not impossible that this is a netto loss for the Netherlands.

    Of course we gets lots of high tech jobs... Wait, what? Zero employees? Right, so that's pointless then.

    Let Google pay the same on its income as I (Dutch person, living and working in the Netherlands) do. That's _52%_ income tax, for those interested... Corporations are people. Let them pay income tax like the rest of us.