LogFAQs > #887828693

JagerBomberz posted...

Lol. I don't understand why so many multi-million dollar tech companies register in Ireland for "tax benefits".

There are like 4 or 5 different countries in Europe with lower tax rates that Ireland, but those regions suffer from instability or other factors that would offset the savings from choosing them over Ireland.

Meanwhile, they can benefit from the EU while simultaneously paying the lowest rate.

Facebook, IBM, Amazon, Google, etc. all have 'shell' HQ's in Ireland.

http://fortune.com/2013/11/01/on-site-at-apples-famous-irish-headquarters/

And yet Cork population about 120,000 is home to five of Apples global subsidiaries, including Apple Sales International, which manages the companys gargantuan global distribution and sales of iPads, iPhones, computers, and its many other devices. (Also here are Apple Operations Europe, Apple Operations International, Apple Distribution International, and Apple Operations.) Yet there are no multi-lane highways across the street from its redbrick and glass building. Rather, a pair of horses munches on a rangy patch of grass, near to an empty soccer field, while a few miles away, dairy cows laze on the green fields of Blarney under a stormy sky just as they did decades ago, when Steve Jobs flew into Cork in 1980 to open Apples overseas operation.

From the front, Apple HQ could well be mistaken for a high school, bland and modern, and just three stories high. And foot traffic is thin enough that when Fortune wandered up to the entrance on Tuesday morning, security guards quickly took notice. Was there anyone we could say hello to, we asked? No, the nearest public-relations staffer was in London.

In U.S. Senate hearings last May, Apple (AAPL, -0.67%) struggled to explain how it had managed to avoid an estimated $44 billion or so in U.S. taxes, by taking advantage of Irelands 12.5% corporate tax rate, as well as mechanisms that effectively rendered it stateless for tax purposes. One loophole has allowed Apple and others to shunt billions in profits from Ireland through the Netherlands to the tax-free British Virgin Islands, by setting up a web of subsidiaries perfectly tailored to avoiding taxes, in the famously-named Double Irish with a Dutch sandwich accounting method. Apple insists it contributes about $1 in every $40 in corporate taxes the IRS collects.

On the flip side, this all just proves Trump right, in that companies would rather operate outside of the US because tax rates are lower.

Even Microsoft, the company that created the wealth of 'benevolent and generous philanthropists' Bill and Melinda Gates, likes to partake in tax avoidance. So much for standing up for the poor when they would rather pocket the money themselves, eh, Gatie?
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/how-microsoft-parks-profits-offshore-to-pare-its-tax-bill/