Google has overhauled its global tax structure and consolidated all of its intellectual property holdings back to the US, signalling the winding down of a tax loophole estimated to have saved American companies hundreds of billions of dollars.
The internet search company said on Tuesday the move was designed to simplify its corporate tax arrangements and was in line with OECD efforts to limit international tax avoidance, as well as recent changes to US and Irish laws.
Google’s actions came ahead of the close of the so-called “double Irish” tax loophole, which has been used by US companies to channel international profits through Ireland and on to tax havens like Bermuda — putting them outside the US tax net. That led American companies to amass more than $1tn offshore as of the end of 2017, when President Donald Trump’s tax reform changed the treatment of overseas profits.