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“Topelt iirlane” ja “hollandi võileib” ei ole kokteilid

Eelmise, ettevõtte tulumaksu teemalise, postituse jätkuks värske uudis TechCrunch’ilt seoses Twitter’i peatselt avatava Iirimaa kontoriga:

Twitter is setting up its European HQ in Dublin (in fact this is its third international office outside the Valley). The reasons are simple: money. It appears Twitter will in fact be reducing its tax payments by more than 60% by lowering its tax rate 16 percentage points.

Following the long- tradition of US companies in Europe (joining Google, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, PayPal, LinkedIn, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Apple, HP and Zynga) Ireland’s 12% corporation tax, and 45 minute flight from London (where corporation tax is 28%) is just too tempting not to take advantage of.

Need, kes teenivad piisavalt palju, suudavad ka enda makse optimeerida vastupidiselt neile, kes ei tuleks ettevõtte tulumaksu kehtestamisega kaasnevate nüanssidega (investeeringute maksuvabastused, litsentsitasud, kontorid välisriikides) ise toime ja kelle võimalused maksukonsultantidele maksta on oluliselt piiratumad.

Postituse pealkirjas nimetatud “topelt iirlane” ja “hollandi võileib” on aga kaks levinuimat näidet ettevõtte tulumaksu optimeerimisest:

Google managed to cut its taxes by $3.1 billion in the last three years by moving most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda.

This strategy is known to lawyers as the “Double Irish” and the “Dutch Sandwich”. You move money through Amsterdam and Dublin. Thus Google reduced its overseas tax rate to 2.4 percent, the lowest of the top five U.S. technology companies by market capitalization.

Ilmselt jäi eelnev väljavõte uudishimulikumale lugejale natuke liiga pealiskaudseks, kuid Wikipedia aitab ka maksude optimeerimisskeemide selgitamisel:

Typically, the company arranges for the rights to exploit intellectual property outside the United States to be owned by an offshore company. This is achieved by entering into a cost sharing agreement between the U.S. parent and the offshore company, in the terms of U.S. transfer pricing rules. The offshore company continues to receive all of the profits from exploitation of the rights outside the U.S., without paying U.S. tax on the profits unless and until they are remitted to the U.S

Mida lihtsam on süsteem, seda keerulisem on seda manipuleerida. Mida keerulisem ja nüanssiderohkem on süsteem, seda lihtsam on seda manipuleerida. Ettevõtte tulumaks ei hakka üheski riigis, mis tahab vähegi ettevõtlust soodustada, kunagi olema lihtne ja arvata vastupidist on…naiivne.

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