In 2016, the U.S. transnational corporation Google transferred 15.9 billion euros (19.2 billion dollars) to the account of the offshore company, registered on the Bermuda Isles, in order to evade payment of multi-billion taxes through the legal scheme, 112 Ukraine reported, quoting Bloomberg agency.
In order to exempt from taxation the larger part of its international profit, Google uses two schemes, which obtained the informal name “double Irish and Dutch Sandwich”.
In particular, through Irish subsidiary, the corporation transfers its profit to the account of the firm – “mailbox” in Netherlands. From there, the funds are transferred to the offshore company on the Bermuda Isles, belonging to other company, registered in Ireland. According to Bloomberg, the amount of withdrawn funds in 2016 appeared to be seven percent higher than the previous year.
It was previously reported that the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project(OCCRP) published the journalistic investigation of Paradise Papers, based on another leakage of documents from offshore companies about the accounts of top officials. The journalists found in the disclosed documents the surnames of ten Ukrainians, who had offshore accounts on the “Paradise Isles”.
