DUBLIN: Google’s controversial advertising sales business in Dublin earned revenues of €22.6bn (£20.1bn) from Europe, the Middle East and Africa last year but paid just €47.8m in tax, according to company filings in Ireland.
Revenues at Google Ireland Limited rose 23% in 2015, to €22.6bn, and were equivalent to a third of the search group’s global income. Of this Irish income, more than $7bn (£5.6bn) is thought to have come from transactions with advertisers in the UK.
Google has continued to route its sales from British advertisers through Ireland, despite efforts by the former UK chancellor George Osborne to crack down on multinational tech groups that “abused the trust of the British people”.
Google Ireland Limited is one half of the search group’s so-called “double Irish” tax structure. Although Google reported booming revenues, its taxable profits were only €341m. This profit figure was small in large part because the company had to meet administrative expenses of €16.9bn.
These expenses are thought to be dominated by royalty fees paid to other Google subsidiaries – income which eventually makes its way to a business called Google Holdings Ireland, the second company in Google’s “double Irish” structure.
