With G7 leaders approving plans to force internet giants such as Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft to pay more tax, it can only be a positive outcome for those countries with sources quoting a tax rate of 15%. To date, these companies and other major corporations only paid taxes in countries where they had an operational base – a physical presence as it were, so online companies such as the above, paid little to no taxes on multi-billion £/$/€ profits. So now these multinational corporations will be required to pay tax in the countries where they operate – and not just where they have their headquarters.
One would think this would be a massive win for countries where these huge profitable companies pay little if anything monetarily into the economies hosting them while the average citizen of said countries shoulder the entire burden of the public purse. I’ve heard the arguments that these huge corporations bring jobs to our country, that it’s OUR privilege to have these big companies in our country. For God sake, have a bit of pride in your country and the price of your work. We have one of the highest skilled work forces in the world and are paid a pittance by these multi-billion dollar corporations. The Irish built America and the City of London, two of the biggest financial centres of the world and again were paid little but gave plenty of blood, sweat and tears…again, for the privilege.
So why then, if the likes of Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft and many more are going to be taxed properly for the privilege of trading in our country, did Pascal Donohoe say Ireland would lose one fifth of its corporate tax revenue if the 15% rate agreed at the G7 meeting is put in place? Because past Irish Governments, consisting of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, Labour and Greens turned Ireland into a tax haven for corporations which didn’t want to pay tax. In 2020 Facebook announced it was winding up Irish holding companies it has used to channel billions of dollars in profits to avoid paying taxes in the US, the UK and hundreds of other countries. Facebook’s main Irish subsidiary paid $101 million, £75 million in tax while recording profits of more than $15 billion in 2018, the last year for which records are available. Facebook companies around the world paid the Irish holding company for use of its intellectual property. Facebook International Holdings Unlimited Company recorded revenue of $30 billion in 2018, more than half of Facebook’s total global turnover of $56 billion.
Facebook moved its intellectual property back to the US shortly after the US Internal Revenue Service, the infamous IRS, took Facebook to court claiming it owed more than $9 billion linked to its 2010 decision to shift its profits to Ireland. Before its stock market flotation in 2012, Facebook valued its intangible assets at $6.5 billion in 2010, but the IRS claimed the true value was upward of $21 billion. Our government, our Irish government has been building a tax haven for years and allowing these huge companies to make huge amounts of profits while allowing the average ‘Paddy’ to carry the entire burden of taxes while not being able to pay rent, buy a home or at times having to choose between eating and heating their home.
A report this week said an Irish subsidiary of Microsoft made a profit of $315 billion last year but paid no corporation tax to Ireland as it is “resident” for tax purposes in Bermuda. Meaning that Microsoft pays zero taxes here in Ireland. The report outlines that the profit generated by ‘Microsoft Round Island One’ is equal to nearly three-quarters of Ireland’s GDP. All these massive corporate powerhouses of the world, routing their profits through our country so they don’t have to pay taxes. Is it any wonder Jacob Rees Mogg moved his company Somerset Capital Management to Dublin in light of Brexit?
We’re being taken as fools by our own Irish government, by the people who say they work for us and look after our interests. I call BS on that! It’s about these companies starting to pay us for the privilege of trading in Ireland, paying us for the privilege of trading in our country and the only way that’s going to happen is change of government in Ireland and that power lies in your hands.
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