Facebook Owes $9B in Taxes Related to Ireland Deal, IRS Says
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow4275_:
Facebook owes $9B in taxes related to Ireland deal, IRS says:
Facebook is being sued by the Internal Revenue Service, which says the social networking giant owes the US government more than $9 billion in unpaid taxes related to its decision to shift profits to its Irish subsidiary, Reuters reported Tuesday.
The lawsuit, which went to trial on Tuesday in a San Francisco court, alleges that Facebook understated the value of intellectual property it sold to its Irish subsidiary in 2010, the news agency reports. Facebook hardware chief Andrew Bosworth and Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer are expected to testify in the trial, expected to last three to four weeks.
Facebook and other large digital tech companies, including Amazon and Google, are under pressure from countries around the world for not paying what is perceived to be their share of taxes. Ireland is perceived as a popular tax refuge for tech companies because of its relatively low taxes.
Facebook's overseas subsidiaries pay royalties to their parent company for use of its trademark and access to users and platform technologies. Facebook Ireland paid Facebook more than $14 billion in royalties and other payments between 2010 and 2016, according to a court filing cited by Reuters.
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