Twitter in Spain pays less corporate tax than one workers salary

IN a fresh example of tax avoidance in multi billion dollar companies, annual accounts have revealed that the Spanish affiliate of Twitter pays less in corporate tax than it spends on one workers salary annually.

According to the figures issued to Spain’s Company Registry, Twitter Spain paid only €113,131 in company taxes in 2018, and registered an annual profit of just €221,038, 13.9% on the previous year with revenues of €4.5 million.

The figures the company have revealed are only representative of the income made from the marketing, advertising and business-development services it provides to the Irish branch of the Twitter.

The company actually made a great amount more in profits but it transferred the majority of its revenue to Ireland where Twitter, along with other multinational companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple, make use of the 12% business tax rate.

Ireland holds the largest share of the US company’s business in Europe, which allows the Spanish division of the company to transfer the money without ringing alarm bells.

The total tax paid by Twitter Spain in 2018 which was reported at €113,131, is €20,000 less than the average wage of one of its 19 workers which sits at €131,578 before taxes, including social security contributions and other employee costs.