Sun Dec 23, 2012, 02:56 PM

alp227 (21,025 posts)

Facebook paid £2.9m tax on £840m profits made outside US, figures show

Source: The Guardian

Facebook has become the latest multinational to come under the spotlight for its tax affairs after figures revealed it paid just £2.9m in tax on profits of more than more than £800m.

Filings for Facebook Ireland, through which all of the social network's profits outside the US are channelled, show it paid the Irish tax authority €3.2m (£2.9m) last year.

Facebook is structured so that companies buying advertisements on the website in the UK, or anywhere outside of the US, have to pay Facebook Ireland.

This allowed Facebook Ireland to make gross 2011 profits of £840m – or £3.1m per each of its 287 staff. Despite the high gross profit, Facebook Ireland was able to cut its tax bill to just €3.2m by using an accounting technique called the "Double Irish".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/dec/23/facebook-tax-profits-outside-us

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7 replies	Author	Time	Post
Facebook paid £2.9m tax on £840m profits made outside US, figures show (Original post)	alp227	Dec 2012	OP
Harvesting profits.	Turbineguy	Dec 2012	#1
Like harvesting organs	littlemissmartypants	Dec 2012	#2
That's another good reason why I am not on Facebook. n/t	totodeinhere	Dec 2012	#3
Another American innovation that has been taken over by the 1%	BadGimp	Dec 2012	#4
.3 %. less than 1/3 of 1%	salin	Dec 2012	#5
The article doesn't give enough information to do more than say ...	Igel	Dec 2012	#6
Ugh! More yucky revelations about Facebook.	avaistheone1	Dec 2012	#7

Response to alp227 (Original post)

Sun Dec 23, 2012, 03:16 PM

Turbineguy (16,659 posts)

1. Harvesting profits.

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Response to alp227 (Original post)

Sun Dec 23, 2012, 03:18 PM

littlemissmartypants (3,013 posts)

2. Like harvesting organs

from the living.

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Response to alp227 (Original post)

Sun Dec 23, 2012, 03:41 PM

totodeinhere (6,724 posts)

3. That's another good reason why I am not on Facebook. n/t

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Response to alp227 (Original post)

Sun Dec 23, 2012, 04:36 PM

BadGimp (1,928 posts)

4. Another American innovation that has been taken over by the 1%

and they are using the tax laws they created and support to deny the US Government it's fair share of taxes.

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Response to alp227 (Original post)

Sun Dec 23, 2012, 08:17 PM

salin (45,844 posts)

5. .3 %. less than 1/3 of 1%

absurdly low rate to pay on profits.

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Response to salin (Reply #5)

Sun Dec 23, 2012, 09:21 PM

Igel (17,637 posts)

6. The article doesn't give enough information to do more than say ...

That they paid the Irish Tax authority 2.9 million pounds on their revenues.

It doesn't say that was all the taxes paid on that money.

They reduced their taxes in those jurisdictions by moving the income to other jurisdictions, thus depriving the UK and Ireland of the tax revenue. But when it was moved to other jurisdictions it became taxable there. If it's moved to a tax haven like the Caymans, it's not particularly useful--and when it's moved to the US, France, Britain, etc., then it becomes taxable income.

Don't blame the reporter for just being outraged that the UK/Irish authorities lost the income. Stands to reason we Yanks would miss the limitation on the information.

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Response to alp227 (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 02:01 AM

avaistheone1 (11,921 posts)

7. Ugh! More yucky revelations about Facebook.

I so do not like this company.

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