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| Facebook shuts down Irish holding company over tax lawsuits |
Facebook is moving vital assets out of Ireland and liquidating the Irish holding company that has used its billions in company profits to avoid paying taxes in the US, UK and hundreds of other countries.
The main Irish subsidiary paid $ 101 million in taxes and last year generated more than $ 15 billion in profits.
Facebook companies around the world paid the Irish holding company to use their intellectual property.
Facebook International Holdings I Unlimited revenue was $ 30 billion in 2018, more than half of Facebook's total global revenue of $ 56 billion.
Shortly after the US Internal Revenue Service filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming it owed $ 9 billion for its decision to transfer the profits to Ireland in 2010, Facebook decided to close the Irish holding company. And return its intellectual property to the United States.
Facebook estimated its intangible assets at $ 6.5 billion in 2020, but the IRS said it had a real value of $ 21 billion.
"The termination of the Irish holding company is a change that better suits our operating structure," Facebook said in a statement, and its assets have been reallocated to the American parent company.
"Intellectual property licenses related to international operations have been returned to the United States, and we believe this is in line with the tax reforms advocated by global policymakers," she added.
Facebook said that according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the tax rate has exceeded 20% in the past five years, the global rate of 23%.
According to the company's results, the tax rate decreased from 13% at the end of 2018 to 25% in December 2019.
Facebook paid £ 28.6m in taxes in the UK last year despite the company's total sales of £ 2.2bn from advertisers.
Google transferred its intellectual property from Ireland to the United States in January, then closed the Irish tax loophole that US companies used in the past to convert international profits through Ireland into tax havens (like Bermuda) and exclude them from the United States. Abroad.
Ireland agreed to close the gap under international pressure five years ago, but the company was not allowed to fill the gap until late 2020.