双层爱尔兰夹荷兰三明治

双层爱尔兰夹荷兰三明治(英語:Double Irish with Dutch sandwich)是自1980年代后期以来,大多数美国跨国公司使用的一種避稅手法[a]。該手法由苹果公司首創。截止2010年,美国跨国公司每年通過双层爱尔兰夹荷兰三明治這一手法避稅1000亿美元[b]

根據愛爾蘭政策,如果一家公司總部在愛爾蘭以外,实际营运也在愛爾蘭以外,則該公司在愛爾蘭的分公司享有零税率优惠,且向公司總部匯款也無需支付稅款。實際在愛爾蘭運營的則需要上繳12.5%企业所得税率。另外根據荷蘭稅收政策,歐盟境內的公司交易,無須支付企業所得稅,只需支付低廉的交易稅[5][6][7][8][9]

一般美國跨國公司會採用以下措施避稅,首先在愛爾蘭設立實際運營的公司A,將美國以外的收入歸入A,作為A的營業收入。同時還在愛爾蘭設立公司B、荷蘭設立公司C。而B的公司總部所在地為加勒比海某個避稅天堂。公司將所有產品的知識產權劃歸為B公司所有,B再授權給C,C再授權給A。而A一旦有營業收入,必須將收入作為版稅支付給C,同時A支付的版稅作為公司運營成本還能抵扣一定的稅收,C再向B支付版稅。B再將收入匯入公司總部賬戶。如果B直接向A授權,B會被認為實際運營在愛爾蘭境內,因而美國跨國公司會選擇在荷蘭開設公司C。設在愛爾蘭的企業A和B就像三明治的兩片麵包,荷蘭企業C就像三明治中的夾層食物,因而這一避稅手法得名双层爱尔兰夹荷兰三明治[5][6][7][8][9]

通過三家公司的運作,美國跨國公司的海外收入税率仅为约2~3%,而如果將海外收入汇回美国,則至少要支付35%的联邦企业税率[5][6][7][8][9]

由於避稅太多,在外部壓力下,2020年1月,蘋果公司GoogleFacebook等美國跨國公司逐步放棄這一避稅手法[c]。各國政府計劃設置全球最低企業稅率以減少跨國公司避稅問題。

参考

注釋

  1. ^ The Double Irish is sometimes misunderstood as being only used for EU–sourced revenues and business. For example, in 2016, Facebook recorded global revenues of $27 billion, while Facebook in Ireland paid €30 million in Irish tax on Irish revenues of €13 billion (approximately half of all global revenues).[1] Similarly, when the EU introduced the GDPR regulations in 2018, Facebook disclosed that all of its non-U.S. accounts (circa 1.9 billion, of which 1.5 billion were non-E.U), were legally based in Dublin.[2] Similarly, Google is also believed to run most of its non–U.S. sales revenue and profits through its Dublin operation.[3][4]
  2. ^ Before the US 2017 TCJA repatriation tax, the Double Irish shielded all non–US profits of US multinationals from: (a) taxation in the end-consumer market, (b) from taxation in Ireland, and (c) from US taxation. The 2017 TCJA placed a 15.5% US tax on these untaxed profits, and they were deemed to be automatically repatriated (regardless of whether the US multinational wanted to repatriate the untaxed profits or not).
  3. ^ It is believed that Ireland's extreme economic exposure to US corporate BEPS activity, had led Ireland to expand into more traditional tax haven–type tools, such as the Qualifying investor alternative investment fund (QIAIF) (designed to compete with the Cayman Islands SPC), and the Irish Section 110 Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) (designed to compete with the Luxembourg SPV).[10]

参考文献

  1. ^ Adrian Weckler. Facebook paid just €30m tax in Ireland despite earning €12bn. Irish Independent. 29 November 2017 [23 April 2018]. (原始内容存档于2018-04-21). 
  2. ^ David Ingram. Exclusive: Facebook to put 1.5 billion users out of reach of new EU privacy law. Reuters. 18 April 2018 [23 April 2018]. (原始内容存档于2018-04-23). 
  3. ^ Simon Bowers. Google pays €47m in tax in Ireland on €22bn sales revenue. The Guardian. 4 November 2016 [23 April 2018]. (原始内容存档于2018-04-05). 
  4. ^ Google booked 41% of global revenues in Ireland in 2012; A leprechaun's gold?. Finfacts.ie. 30 September 2013 [6 November 2018]. (原始内容存档于2017-12-13). 
  5. ^ 5.0 5.1 5.2 人民網. 苹果避税740亿美元,三明治手法大公开. (原始内容存档于2018-08-22). 
  6. ^ 6.0 6.1 6.2 财新网. 苹果公司的避税“三明治”是怎么做的. 
  7. ^ 7.0 7.1 7.2 36氪. 一张图看懂苹果与硅谷“兄弟们”的避税套路,天才们的创造力你不会懂. 
  8. ^ 8.0 8.1 8.2 每日經濟新聞. 看谷歌是如何成为“避税大户”的? 仅2016年就省下37亿美元. (原始内容存档于2018-10-05). 
  9. ^ 9.0 9.1 9.2 BBC. 全球究竟有多少资产被隐藏在海外?. (原始内容存档于2018-06-09). 
  10. ^ Arthur Beesley. Ireland enjoys tax boom but fears a reckoning: Dublin concerned about reliance on revenue from small group of multinational companies. Financial Times. 31 January 2018 [26 September 2018]. (原始内容存档于2018-07-05). 

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