Ireland collects $245 million in unpaid taxes from Google

DUBLIN, Ireland: Google Ireland has reached agreement with Irish tax officials to pay over $245 million in unpaid corporation taxes to settle what has been termed unspecified "tax matters" from past years.

The amount paid to Ireland includes interest payments on the tax, according to Google Ireland Limited. The $245 million payment was believed to have been paid to the exchequer in October.
However, in Google's latest statement, it listed the Irish tax payment as "adjustments for corporation tax of prior periods" of almost $245 million.

Further, the most recent exchequer revenues show corporation taxes brought in almost $1.7bn in October to Ireland, which was $1bn more than anticipated.

October's corporation tax collection was increased by the payments of tax cases that accounted for $340m, the Department of Finance reported.

Google Ireland Limited is responsible for all revenues generated by Google in Europe, the Middle East and Africa from ad revenues from its search engine and from YouTube.

Google also has two data centers in Ireland that employ some 4,315 people.
Google Ireland's reported turnover increased to $54bn in 2020, from $50bn in 2019.

Pre-tax profits rose to over $3.2bn, up from $2.19bn in 2019, and Google paid a total corporation tax bill of $703m.