Google parent Alphabet Inc would no longer use an intellectual property licensing scheme, known as the “Double Irish, Dutch sandwich,” which allowed it to delay paying US taxes, 2018 tax filings show.
A Google spokesman on Tuesday confirmed that it would scrap the licensing structure, saying this was in line with international rules and followed changes to US tax law in 2017.
Dutch filings, which were seen by reporters, showed that in 2018, Google moved 21.8 billion euros (US$24.5 billion) through its Dutch holding company to Bermuda, up from 19.9 billion euros in 2017.
Google said it would end the practice after last year.
“A date of termination of the company’s licensing activities has not yet been confirmed by senior leadership, however management expects that this termination will take place as of 31 December 2019 or during 2020,” the Dutch filing said.
“Consequently, the company’s turnover and associated expense base generated from licensing activities will discontinue as of this date,” the filing with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce added.
Google, like other multinationals that make use of international tax minimization strategies, has always said it pays all its taxes.
“We’re now simplifying our corporate structure and will license our IP [intellectual property] from the US, not Bermuda,” a spokesman said in a statement.
“Including all annual and one-time income taxes over the past 10 years, our global effective tax rate has been over 23 percent, with more than 80 percent of that tax due in the US,” he said.
For more than a decade, Dutch, Irish and US tax law allowed Google to enjoy an effective tax rate in the single digits on its non-US profits, about one-quarter the average tax rate in its overseas markets.
The subsidiary in the Netherlands was used to shift revenue from royalties earned outside the US to Google Ireland Holdings, an affiliate based in Bermuda, where companies pay no income tax.
The tax strategy was legal and allowed Google to avoid triggering US income taxes or European withholding taxes on the funds, which represent the bulk of its overseas profits.
Under pressure from the EU and the US, Ireland in 2014 decided to phase out the arrangement, ending Google’s Irish tax advantages this year.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of US President Donald Trump administration, which came into effect in January 2018, ended the reason for US companies to hoard foreign profits offshore. Now profits that have been made and taxed abroad are not subject to taxation when returned to the US.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”