GOOGLE’S COVERT TAX EVASION SCHEME BUSTED
Google accounts show 11 billion euros moved via low tax ‘Dutch sandwich’ in 2014
Reuters/Peter Power
Google moved 10.7 billion euros ($12 billion) through the Netherlands to Bermuda in 2014, as part of a structure which allows it to earn most of its foreign income tax free.
Accounts for Google Netherlands Holdings BV published on Thursday show the unit transferred almost all its revenue, mainly royalties from an Irish affiliate through which most non-U.S. revenue is channeled, to a Bermuda-based, Irish-registered affiliate called Google Ireland Holdings.
The tax strategy is known to accountants as the “double Irish, Dutch Sandwich’. It allows Google, now part of holding company Alphabet Inc, to avoid triggering U.S. income taxes or European withholding taxes on the funds, which represent the bulk of the group’s overseas profits.
A Google spokesman said the company follows the tax rules in all the countries where it operates.
The decade-old arrangement allowed Alphabet to enjoy an effective tax rate of just 6 percent on its non-U.S. profits last year, around a quarter the average tax rate in its overseas markets.
Bermuda charges companies no income tax.
Corporate tax avoidance has risen to the top of the political agenda in European in recent years and Google in particular has been under pressure for the low tax it pays on profits generated from sales in the continent.
Last week Google was called to testify to a UK parliamentary committee about a 130 million pounds ($186 million) back tax bill, agreed with the British tax authority in January, that the Opposition Labour party described as “derisory”.
The deal brought Google’s total British tax bill for 2005 to 2015 to around 200 million pounds, whereas its UK revenue amounted to 24 billion pounds.
Google Netherlands Holdings NV, which has no employees, had a Dutch tax bill of just 2.8 million euros, its accounts showed.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam and Tom Bergin in London; Editing by David Holmes)
As Solyndra taught us: when you might be about to go to jail BUY PROPERTY.
Google unit stakes biotech claim with lease of entire Onyx campus in order to create defensible asset for when Eric Schmidt and Larry Page are arrested
- Commercial Real Estate,
- Health Care,
- Biotech,
- Pharmaceuticals,
- Medical Devices,
- Economic Development
Ron Leuty Reporter San Francisco Business Times
Google’s life sciences business is about to get a new space in the heart of the biotech industry for as many as 1,000 employees.
Verily Life Sciences plans to lease the entire 400,000-square-foot home of the former Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc., according to people familiar with the deal. The transaction isn’t finalized but could be by the end of the week, according to a source, with Verily moving aggressively to start shifting the first of 400 employees from Mountain View by the end of the year.
Enlarge
The three buildings on the South San Francisco campus of the former Onyx Pharmaceuticals… more
Ron Leuty
The deal is important for a couple of reasons beyond the potential job numbers. Verily’s move 30 miles north to one of the global biotech industry’s hubs from the headquarters of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) — the holding company for search engine-technology company Google — would help it emerge from Google’s shadow. Secondly, the deal takes a high-profile chunk of space off the market at a time when Bay Area biotech real estate is tight and comes at a premium.
What’s more, the deal helps Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) achieve its promise to shareholders to shed unneeded property. The biotech giant last year shut down the Onyx site at 249-279 E. Grand Ave. after its 2013 acquisition of the cancer drug developer for $9.7 billion and is in the process of subleasing nearly 700,000 square feet of excess South San Francisco space.
The uptake of the biotech space shuffle is that Genentech Inc. remains the 800-pound gorilla of the Bay Area biotech scene but, as one source familiar with the Verily deal said, the former Google Life Sciences now is the 400-pound version and growing.
Verily didn’t respond to a request to comment for this story, but a source said the deal is a sublease with Amgen, not a direct lease with landlord Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (NYSE: ARE).
The deal also apparently includes land that Onyx in 2012 or 2013 purchased for future expansion.
Verily — the word means “truly” or “certainly” — is a big company of big people doing big things. Its collection of life sciences projects, acquired or in development under the Google/Alphabet banner, range from research into cancer and neurodegenerative diseases to a shake-controlling spoon for Parkinson’s disease patients and a glucose-sensing contact lens for diabetes. It also is working on a project, called Baseline, designed to no less than determine the model for a healthy human being.
Tax avoidance isn’t a left or right issue, it’s a cancer …
cached
Everything you need to know about tax. … Aleppo was once a city of music, but this year the 400,000 residents who inhabit its eastern suburbs can hear nothing but …
bing yahoo
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/voic[…]-issue-its-cancer-eating-our-democracy
HSBC advised on film schemes designed to avoid tax …
cached
Feb 18, 2015 · HSBC’s London office created and advised on some of the UK’s largest film-based tax avoidance schemes, including the Eclipse investment vehicles which were …
bing yahoo
http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/[…]-on-film-schemes-designed-to-avoid-tax
Tax avoidance – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
cached
Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one’s own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within …
bing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_avoidance
Google 2.4% Rate Shows How $60 Billion Is Lost to Tax …
cached
Oct 21, 2010 · Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, is preparing a structure similar to Google’s that will send earnings from Ireland to the Cayman Islands …
bing google
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles[…]lion-u-s-revenue-lost-to-tax-loopholes
Double Irish arrangement – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
cached
The double Irish arrangement is a tax avoidance strategy that some multinational … This part of the scheme is referred to as the “Dutch sandwich”. … However, companies such as Google, Oracle and FedEx are declaring fewer of their ongoing …
google
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement
Tax Research UK » The economics of Google’s tax
cached
The row over Google’s tax settlement of just £130 million to cover the last ten years has become political. John McDonnell raised an urgent question on the issue …
bing yahoo
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/201[…]16/01/26/the-economics-of-googles-tax/
Problems of Accounting for Revenue in the New Economy
cached
Revenue Recognition, including Electronic Commerce Issues Dealt With by the Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) Bob Jensen at Trinity University
bing yahoo
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/eitf01.htm
Welcome to SMH – Your Partner in Tax
cached
ATO Wiretaps. The Federal Government is seriously considering giving the ATO wiretap powers, or more accurately, powers to access metadata, including stored phone …
bing yahoo
http://www.smhtaxlawyers.net.au/taxation-and-ato-news-australia.html
Google Tax Avoidance – Huffington Post
cached
Google’s chairman says he is “proud” of the way his company avoids paying taxes. “It’s called capitalism,” … Google Under Fire Over UK Tax Avoidance Scheme.
google
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/google-tax-avoidance/
Google boss: I’m very proud of our tax avoidance scheme | Home …
cached
12 Dec 2012 … Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt said £2.5 billion tax avoidance ‘is called … But Mr Schmidt said such schemes were legitimate and the …
google
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/h[…]-our-tax-avoidance-scheme-8411974.html
Apple faces ‘billions of euros’ costs in tax avoidance …
cached
Sep 30, 2014 · The US Securities and Exchange Commission backed Apple’s tax strategies last year. But earlier this year a report by the UK’s Bureau of Investigative …
bing
http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-faces-b[…]ons-in-fines-in-tax-avoidance-probe/#!
Google, Amazon, Starbucks: The rise of ‘tax shaming’ – BBC News
cached
Global firms such as Starbucks, Google and Amazon have come under fire for … ” As the public have got to understand better what corporate tax avoidance is, …
google
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20560359
Google UK coughs up £130m back taxes. Is it enough? • The Register
cached
23 Jan 2016 … Google is to pay £130m to settle a tax dispute with the British Government … account of multinational tax avoidance schemes for The Register.
google
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/2[…]/google_uk_130_million_tax_settlement/
Tax haven – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
cached
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) identifies three key factors in considering whether a jurisdiction is a tax haven: [16]
bing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_haven
Google’s tax avoidance is called ‘capitalism’, says chairman Eric …
cached
12 Dec 2012 … Google’s tax avoidance is called ‘capitalism’, says chairman Eric Schmidt … The company reportedly uses complex tax schemes called the …
google
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/[…]talism-says-chairman-Eric-Schmidt.html
Google, Amazon, Starbucks: The rise of ‘tax shaming’ – …
cached
May 21, 2013 · The art of paying less tax. Multinationals such as Google, Amazon and Starbucks have been criticised by the Public Accounts Committee over tax avoidance
bing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20560359
Factbox: Apple, Amazon, Google and tax avoidance schemes …
cached
22 May 2013 … European leaders meet on Wednesday to discuss tax policy and specifically their concerns over how a number of high-profile international …
google
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-tax-avoidance-idUSBRE94L0GW20130522
Google’s Schmidt ‘very proud’ of tax avoidance scheme | ZDNet
cached
13 Dec 2012 … Google chairman Eric Schmidt has said he is proud of the company’s tax structure, which has been heavily criticised by lawmakers around the …
google
http://www.zdnet.com/article/googles-s[…]dt-very-proud-of-tax-avoidance-scheme/
Google boss Eric Schmidt says he is ‘proud’ of the company’s multi …
cached
12 Dec 2012 … Taxpayers were left to fund the shortfall after Google contributed just … is ‘proud’ of the company’s multi-million pound tax avoidance scheme.
google
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl[…]illion-pound-tax-avoidance-scheme.html