The Internal Revenue System (IRS) of the United States have moved to court against Facebook, claiming that the social media giants owe USD 9 billion in unpaid taxes. The case primarily revolves around a deal in 2010 between Facebook and one of the Irish subsidiaries Facebook uses to transfer money Internationally. As per the reports published by Reuters, IRS have claimed in the lawsuit that Facebook undervalued the intellectual property that was sold to its Irish subsidiary and avoided a total of USD 9 billion subsequently. A court in San Francisco conducted the first trial of the lawsuit on Tuesday.
Five executives from Facebook, including Mike Schroepfer, the company’s CTO, and Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s AR and VR chief, have been called by the court to testify. If things go as estimated by Facebook, the case is expected to last for around 3 to 4 weeks. Ireland’s low corporate taxes has seen many companies has prompted most of the leading companies to create Irish subsidiaries and then reap rewards through the royalties it provides. According to IRS, Facebook undervalued the royalties from its Irish subsidiaries in its tax filings, thereby duping the country of billions in taxes.
In another recent update from Facebook, the social media giants announced it will be paying up to USD 5 to users for their voice recordings. For selected users, Facebook will provide a task of calling out the phrase “Hey Portal, call (first name of any Facebook contact twice)” for ten times. The user will earn 200 points for everytimehe/she completes the task. Each user can do it for a maximum of five times, netting a total of 1,000 points which will give users USD 5 through PayPal. This is done by Facebook to improve voice recognition of Portal.
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