Facebook Ireland reveals how much corporate tax it paid last year

26 Nov 2019

Facebook Dublin. Image: PierreOlivier/Depositphotos

As it continues to expand its presence in the country, Facebook Ireland revealed that its pre-tax profits rose 43pc last year.

Facebook Ireland has said that it paid €63.2m in corporate tax to the Government last year, and calculated that it directly contributed almost €1bn to the Irish economy through wages, deals with local suppliers and capital expenditure.

According to The Irish Times, Facebook’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin contributed €25.5bn to the company’s overall revenues last year, which is an increase of more than one-third compared to the previous year. Pre-tax profit grew from €251.8m in 2017 to €361.3m in 2018, representing growth of 43%.

The head of Facebook Ireland, Gareth Lambe, said that given such figures, the country remains “important” for the company following a decade of being based here.

Last January, Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg arrived in Dublin to announced that the company was to create 1,000 jobs in the city over the course of this year, bringing its total employee figure to around 5,000.

While the average pay of Facebook staff last year has not yet been revealed, the figure for the previous year showed it to be €154,000. This included salary, bonuses and share payments.

Business growth

Facebook’s next big move in Ireland is to shift its EMEA headquarters from its base in Silicon Docks to the Bank Centre building, previously occupied by AIB, in Ballsbridge. In 2018, Lambe said that the campus would have space for an additional 5,000 employees.

Last month, the third-quarter financial statements of Facebook’s entire operations were revealed. It showed that despite the controversies surrounding its social network, it achieved steady revenue and user growth.

Facebook’s user base in Europe grew from 286m to 288m daily active users. In the US and Canada, there was an increase from 187m to 189m daily active users.

It reported total revenue for the last quarter of $17.7bn, up from $13.7bn during the same period last year.

“We had a good quarter and our community and business continue to grow,” Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said at the time.

“We are focused on making progress on major social issues and building new experiences that improve people’s lives around the world.”

Facebook offices, Dublin. Image: PierreOlivier/Depositphotos

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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