Segundo o texto, a principal finalidade do Double Irish era

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When tax bills are in the millions or even billions, some individuals will go to any lengths to avoid paying up


RS, HMRC, FTS or CRA: whatever you like to call him, there's no hiding from the taxman. No individual or institution is immune from the annual tax deadline, although many aim to reduce what they pay as much as possible through regulatory loopholes and profit redistribution schemes.

When that tips over into illegal territory, though, it becomes a major problem. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that over $600bn is lost every year due to tax avoidance, with the US, China and Japan named as the greatest culprits.

Multinational technology companies including Google, Apple and Amazon have been slapped with multiple allegations in recent years regarding non-payment of taxes in Europe. In 2016, Apple was ordered to pay $15.4bn in back taxes to Ireland after it was revealed that the company paid just one percent tax on its European profits in 2003, down to 0.005 percent in 2014. That same year Google was accused of using two regulatory loopholes, nicknamed the 'double Irish', allowing it to pay just six percent corporation tax rather than the required 19.3 percent.

The Double Irish arrangement was a base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) corporate tax avoidance tool used mainly by United States multinationals since the late 1980s to avoid corporate taxation on non-US profits. (The US was one of a small number of countries that did not use a "territorial" tax system, and taxed corporations on all profits, no matter whether the profit was made outside the US or not, in contrast to "territorial" tax systems which tax only profits made within that country.) It was the largest tax avoidance tool in history. By 2010, it was shielding US$100 billion annually in US multinational foreign profits from taxation, and was the main tool by which US multinationals built up untaxed offshore reserves of US$1 trillion from 2004 to 2018.

Despite US knowledge of the Double Irish for a decade, it was the European Commission that in October 2014 forced Ireland to close the scheme, starting in January 2015. However, users of existing schemes, such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Pfizer, were given until January 2020 to close them.

At the announcement of the closure, it was known that multinationals had replacement BEPS tools in Ireland, the Single Malt (2014), and Capital Allowances for Intangible Assets (CAIA) (2009):

-Single malt is almost identical to the Double Irish, and was identified with Microsoft (Linkedln), and Allergan in 2017;

-CAIA can provide up to twice the tax shield of Single Malt, or Double Irish, and was identified with Apple in the 2015 leprechaun economics affair, i.e., a huge statistical distortion in Ireland's GDP caused by Apple's tax restructuring. The company transferred intangible assets to its Irish subsidiary, which artificially inflated the country's GDP by more than 26.3% in a single year (later revised to 24.6%), an absurd leap for a relatively small economy. This growth did not reflect real production, but rather Apple's tax inversion of about US$ 300 billion of its intangible assets (mainly intellectual property) to Ireland.


 (Adapted from https://www.worldfinance.com/wealth-management/top-5-tax-scandals)
Segundo o texto, a principal finalidade do Double Irish era
Alternativas

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Gabarito: C

Fundamento decisivo: O ponto decisivo era o trecho que define o Double Irish como ferramenta usada por multinacionais dos EUA para evitar tributação sobre “non-US profits”.

Tema central: finalidade do Double Irish
Análise das alternativas
A
Errada
Está errada porque desloca o foco para lucros obtidos exclusivamente dentro dos EUA, quando o texto afirma exatamente o contrário: o mecanismo visava evitar tributação sobre “non-US profits”. O objeto da economia tributária eram lucros estrangeiros, não domésticos.
B
Errada
Está errada porque atribui ao Double Irish a função de transferência legal de sede com mudança real de operações, mas o texto o classifica como ferramenta BEPS de avoidance tributário sobre lucros. A natureza do mecanismo é planejamento tributário, não relocação operacional real.
C
Certa
A alternativa C está correta porque corresponde ao trecho central do texto: o Double Irish era uma ferramenta BEPS usada principalmente por multinacionais dos EUA para evitar tributação corporativa sobre lucros obtidos fora dos Estados Unidos.
D
Errada
Está errada porque fala em isenção de empresas estrangeiras que atuavam nos EUA, algo que o texto não afirma. O texto trata de um mecanismo usado principalmente por multinacionais dos EUA para reduzir a tributação sobre lucros não americanos, e não de isenção total para empresas estrangeiras.
E
Errada
Está errada porque inverte a relação entre os mecanismos. O texto informa que, no fechamento do Double Irish, já existiam replacement tools na Irlanda, como Single Malt e CAIA; logo, eles surgem como alternativas ou substitutos do Double Irish, não como mecanismos por ele definitivamente substituídos.
Pegadinha da questão
A confusão central era trocar “non-US profits” por lucros obtidos dentro dos EUA e, com isso, perder que o mecanismo atacava a tributação global dos EUA sobre lucros estrangeiros.
Dica para questões semelhantes
  • Quando a pergunta pedir finalidade principal, procure no texto o trecho que nomeia diretamente o objetivo do mecanismo ou instrumento.
  • Se o texto contrastar dois sistemas tributários, use esse contraste para identificar exatamente qual problema o mecanismo pretendia contornar.
  • Em alternativas sobre interpretação, confira se o sujeito, o objeto e o alcance da medida coincidem com o texto: aqui eram multinacionais dos EUA, lucros estrangeiros e redução de tributação sobre esses lucros.

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Gab. C

The Double Irish arrangement was a base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) corporate tax avoidance tool used mainly by United States multinationals since the late 1980s to avoid corporate taxation on non-US profits. (3º parágrafo)

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