Google parks $10 billion in Bermuda, avoiding $2 billion in taxes
RT:
Google parks $10 billion in Bermuda, avoiding $2 billion in taxes
December 10, 2012 by Jean
Published: 10
December, 2012, 21:49
/ Mark Blinch
Google reportedly avoided
another $2 billion in taxes thanks to outsourced banking, which has already
dubbed “immoral” and an “embarrassment” in media as austerity budgets reshape
Europeans’ lives.
The California-based
Internet giant shifted $9.8 billion in revenues into a no-tax Bermuda company,
cutting its overall income tax rate almost by half, Bloomberg cites the
company’s subsidiary financials as showing.
Information disclosed on
the increase in Google’s revenues routed to Bermuda could add fuel to the
outrage spreading across Europe and the US over corporate tax dodging, the
agency reports.
“The tax strategy of
Google and other multinationals is a deep embarrassment to governments around
Europe,” Richard
Murphy, an accountant and director of Tax Research LLP in Norfolk, England,
told Bloomberg. “The political awareness
now being created in the UK, and to a lesser degree elsewhere in Europe, is:
It’s us or them. People understand that if Google doesn’t pay, somebody
else has to pay or services get cut.”
In Ireland, Google paid a
whopping 0.14 per cent tax on sales of over €47 billion over a seven-year
period, the Sunday Independent found out, compared to 21 per cent paid
globally. The company keeps tax bills low through a system of transfer pricing
– royalty payments filtered through Ireland, the Netherlands and ultimately
Bermuda, the paper reports. Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke stressed that
Google’s tax charge in Britain was only £3.4 million ($5.4 million) out of
declared earnings of £2.5 billion.
Google’s technically
legitimate so-called “double Irish/Dutch sandwich” tax strategy is attracting
new attention as other top US corporations faced tough questioning by British
MPs last month. Google, Starbucks and Amazon were accused of leaking tax
revenues from the UK to tax havens abroad, actions that were labeled “immoral.”
Last week, the European
Commission advised member states to create blacklists of tax havens and adopt
anti-abuse rules in a move to fight the tax evasion and avoidance which costs
the EU $1.3 trillion a year. Commissioner for taxation Algirdas Semeta called
the tax maneuvers “scandalous” and “an attack on the fundamental principle of fairness.”
According to Google, it
complies with all tax rules, and its investments in various European countries
help their economies.
NESARA- Restore America – Galactic News
2012-12-11 06:21:58
Source: http://nesaranews.blogspot.com/2012/12/google-parks-10-billion-in-bermuda.html
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