Google paid little corporate tax in Ireland and UK in 2013

Innovation
Google paid little corporate tax in Ireland and UK in 2013
By Michael Hennigan, Finfacts founder and editor
Jul 25, 2014 - 7:09 AM

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John Herlihy, Google Ireland chief (left), apparently instructing Richard Bruton, enterprise minister, on pressing green lights, Dublin, September 2012.

Google on Thursday filed its 2013 accounts for its Irish and UK companies - - they show that the search engine giant paid little corporate tax in Ireland and the UK.

Google Ireland reported a 10% rise in revenues in 2013 to €17bn ($21.7bn) while Google UK's turnover was £642m ($965m).

The UK revenues comprise £541.7m in marketing fees paid by Google Ireland and a fee of £100.7m for research and development from its US parent.

Google Inc.'s search revenues (excluding-Motorola) in 2013 amounted to $55.5bn and it has separately acknowledged that the UK generated $5.6bn of revenues - - but these are booked in Ireland.

Google Ireland's revenues amounted to 39% of global revenues and payroll numbers in Ireland and UK were respectively at 2,368 up from 2,200 in 2012 and 1,835 in 2013, up from 1,613 in 2012 - - Google Inc. has a global payroll of 43,862 (ex-Motorola) at end 2013.

Google Ireland runs a data centre but its staff with about 70% from outside Ireland, mainly work in sales and administration while in the UK 700 engineers work on the Android smartphone software platform and other high tech activity.

Google Ireland's pre-tax profits of €189.1m in 2013 followed a charge for “administrative expenses” of €11.7bn that mainly reflect Double Irish Dutch Sandwich profit-shifting to the Google Ireland Holdings Irish letter-box company with an address at the offices of Conyers, Dill and Pearman, a law firm, in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Google Ireland's tax liability was €27.7m, up from €17m in 2012.

Google UK had pre-tax profits of £70.8m in 2013 on turnover of £642m, compared with pre-tax profits of £36.8m in 2012. Its tax liability was £20.4m in 2013 up from £11.6m in 2012 - - reasonable on profits from reported sales but not on profits from actual sales.