Twitter Spain pays less in taxes than on one worker’s salary
The Spanish affiliate of the micro-blogging website paid just €113,131 in corporate tax in 2018, while an average employee costs the company €131,578 – nearly €20,000 more
Twitter Spain, the Spanish affiliate of the popular American micro-blogging website Twitter, recorded a net profit of just €221,038 in 2018, 13.9% up on the previous year, after revenues of more than €4.5 million (0.4% more than 2017), according to the annual accounts filed by the company with Spain’s company registry.
Like other multinational companies – such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple – Twitter takes advantage of Ireland’s corporate tax rate (12%) to lower its fiscal burden. As a result, Twitter Spain only owed Spain’s Tax Agency a total of €113,131 in corporate tax. In other words, the Spanish affiliate paid less to the Tax Agency than it spends on one its 19 workers, who earn an average of €131,578 before taxes, including social security contributions and other employee costs.
Twitter Spain’s operating expenses rose to €4.177 million, up from €4.167 million the previous year, with most of this amount going to personnel costs (€2.5 million).