Google shifted $23 billion to tax haven Bermuda in 2017: filing By Reuters

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Google (NASDAQ:) moved 19.9 billion euros ($22.7 billion) by a Dutch shell firm to Bermuda in 2017, as a part of an association that enables it to cut back its overseas tax invoice, in accordance to paperwork filed on the Dutch Chamber of Commerce.

The quantity channeled by Google Netherlands Holdings BV was round 4 billion euros greater than in 2016, the paperwork, filed on Dec. 21, confirmed.

“We pay all of the taxes due and comply with the tax laws in every country we operate in around the world,” Google stated in an announcement.

“Google, like other multinational companies, pays the vast majority of its corporate income tax in its home country, and we have paid a global effective tax rate of 26 percent over the last ten years.”

The subsidiary in the Netherlands is used to shift income from royalties earned exterior the United States to Google Ireland Holdings, an affiliate based mostly in Bermuda, the place corporations pay no revenue tax.

The tax technique, often known as the “Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich”, is authorized and permits Alphabet-owned Google to keep away from triggering U.S. revenue taxes or European withholding taxes on the funds, which characterize the majority of its abroad income.

However, underneath strain from the European Union and the United States, Ireland in 2014 determined to section out the association, ending Google’s tax benefits in 2020.

Google Netherlands Holdings BV paid 3.4 million euros in taxes in the Netherlands in 2017, the paperwork confirmed, on a gross revenue of 13.6 million euros.