On New Year’s Eve Google announced that it will be shutting down its double Irish tax avoidance scheme. This double Irish that has cost governments around the world billions in lost tax revenues since it was set up in 2004.
The scheme relied on putting intellectual property rights in Bermuda, and making huge payments to Google’s Bermuda company for the right to use that IP. Now Google is moving the intellectual property back to the United States, where it belongs.
However, the closure of the scheme is not likely to lead to any more tax revenues outside the United States and threatens to undermine efforts to reform the international tax system.
Our Director, George Turner, sets out what the closure of the scheme means for international tax reform and tax revenues in countries where Google operates in an article for the New Statesman published today. Click here to read the full story.
Photo by Mitchell Luo on Unsplash
