Accounts filed by Facebook Ireland last week show that the social media giant funnelled £440m into an Irish sister company in 2011, which then shifted the money into a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands. The move forms part of a complex tax structure known as a “Double Irish”, where large royalty payments are moved from international subsidiaries in order to pay tax in low rate regimes, usually based offshore. Facebook pushes most of its overseas revenues through Ireland, which now accounts for around 40pc of its global revenue. This has enabled it to legally sidestep payments to higher tax states such as Britain. The company’s Irish operation paid only €3.23m (£2.63m) in corporation tax last year, even as revenues more than quadrupled from €229m to €1.051bn during 2011. Despite that, the firm slumped to a loss of €18m. In 2010, Facebook recorded a €1.8m profit. Chancellor George Osborne vowed in his Autumn Statement to get tough on corporate tax avoidance and ensure multinational companies “pay their proper share of taxes”. Agencies
