Google Transferred Billions Of Money To Bermuda To Avoid Taxes
Regulatory filings indicate that Google successfully protected billions of dollars of its revenues from the prying eyes of tax agencies worldwide and saved around $2.4 billion by moving the bulk of its overseas profits to Bermuda-based Dutch subsidiary.
The news came to public light after first reported by the Dutch magazine Quote explaining that the heart of the tax avoidance scheme is what accounts term as 'Double Irish' and a 'Dutch Sandwich'.
Google moved its profits through its Dutch subsidiary, Google Netherlands Holdings to Bermuda- a tax haven for corporations. The government in Bermuda charges no income tax to companies. Many multibillion dollar transnational companies are facing accusations of dodging tax obligations in countries where they operate.
"Google complies with the tax laws in every country where we operate," said Google in an email statement as quoted by Bloomberg news.
According to a Business Insider report, Google's 10-year tax scheme allowed its parent company, Alphabet, to bear just a 6% tax rate on non-US profits.
Just last week, the search engine giants was grilled in the British parliament over its 130 million pounds ($186 million) back tax bill despite the fact that the tech company's UK revenue amounted to 24 billion pounds- a big gap in income and tax payments.
Tax avoidance has taken a more political agenda across the EU as a result of citizens' outrage of what they perceive as unethical and greedy.
"As the public have got to understand better what corporate tax avoidance is, there is a clear sense of outrage that is going well beyond a small group of protesters - it's something that the public feels is really not right with the current system," said War on Want's tax justice campaigner Murray Worthy as mentioned in a report by the BBC.
