Facebook on Wednesday confirmed that Irish affiliates, the center of a profit-changing dispute, are closing to avoid U.S. taxes.

California tech giant Facebook has confirmed the disbandment of Ireland Holdings Unlimited during a confrontation with U.S. tax authorities, saying the company owed billions of dollars in tax arrears by misappropriating its profits. Foreign.

A Facebook spokesman said the move was part of an appropriate transformation of the group’s operations and that the assets of the three subsidiaries had been “distributed to the US parent company”.

The closure had already been reported Time From London and other media.

Facebook has questioned the request of U.S. tax authorities for allegedly underestimating the intellectual property assets used by the social network. But he said the assets were returned in July, which “fits in well with the structure of the company” and “the position of operations and staff.”

Facebook claims to have paid more than $ 11 billion in taxes worldwide over the past three years, and claims that its effective tax rate has exceeded 20% over the past five years.

The news comes as negotiations on a new global tax treaty seem to be stalled and some countries want to tax digital giants unilaterally based on their income. In November, more than 75 leading technology groups, including Google and Facebook, backed a French initiative to make a “fair tax contribution” to the countries in which they operate.

AFP