Social media company Facebook has shut down a few Irish departments. Those parts were used in fiscal constructions that allowed Facebook to pay less tax.
The Irish Facebook branch had the intellectual property on all the company’s international sales. Other sections of Facebook paid the Irish Department for their use. As a result, Facebook did not have to pay profits tax in the United States, but in Ireland. For example, in 2018 Facebook made over $15 billion in profits, for which it paid $101 million in taxes. That amounts to a tax rate of less than 0.7%.
“The intellectual property license for our international activities has been retrieved to the United States,” said Facebook officials.
The US IRS, the Internal Revenue Service, sued Facebook early this year. The IRS is accusing the company of tax evasion and demanding billions in overdue payments.