An example of far-reaching tax optimization: $315 billion profit, 0 dollar tax

Microsoft Round Island One generated $315 billion in revenue last fiscal year. The company, an Irish subsidiary of the US software group Microsoft, did not have to pay a single cent of tax on this. british newspaper Watchman mentioned. After all, Microsoft Round Island One is financially registered in Bermuda, where there is no tax on corporate profits.

Profits for the company – which has few directors and no employees – are equal to nearly three-quarters of Ireland’s gross domestic product, which reached a level of $437 billion last year.

licenses

Microsoft Round Island One, which is responsible for collecting global revenue from software licenses for the US company, saw its profits soar last fiscal year. In the previous year, the company, which is based in the Irish capital Dublin, recorded a positive result of $ 10 billion. The Irish company announced last year that it had paid its parent company a total of $55 billion in dividends in two phases.

The US Senate previously launched an investigation into Microsoft and Ireland for using Microsoft Round Island One and other Irish affiliates to reduce taxes that were owed in the US or elsewhere.

Nine years ago, Microsoft and other technology companies were said to have been probably the largest users of these external entities for intellectual property transfer. It has been said that Microsoft began building a complex network of interconnected foreign entities in the 1990s to facilitate international sales and lower taxes.

However, a Microsoft spokesperson commented that the company has been operating in Ireland for more than thirty-five years and has made significant investments in the country. “The company is a taxpayer and employer in Ireland and contributes significantly to the national economy,” the spokesperson said.

Our organizational and financial structure reflects our complex global business. We also fully comply with local laws and requirements in all countries.

bad taste

“The tax aggression that Microsoft has demonstrated and facilitated by Ireland is incredible,” said Paul Monaghan, CEO of the Fair Tax Foundation advocacy group. “This race for optimal financial competitiveness reflects real aversion, especially at a time when countries — hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic — are trying to get their economies back up and running.”

Democracy no longer has the right to produce toxic substances and leave the rest of the world to bear the burden. However, the same is true of tax evasion and tax evasion, which are two toxic pollutants of the world’s financial systems.

Big US tech companies – Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet, Netflix and Apple – are accused of paying $96 billion less in taxes over the past decade than they had forecast in their annual financial reports. Watchman still.

These companies have paid a total of $219 billion in income tax over the past decade. This equates to 3.6% of their total revenue of over $6 trillion. Income tax is paid on earnings, but researchers argue that these companies are deliberately shifting their income to tax-friendly jurisdictions to pay lower taxes.

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Read also: Amazon didn’t pay a single cent in corporate tax in Europe last year