Palantir paid just £2m corporation tax in UK in 2024 despite lucrative public sector contracts

📰 source: theguardian_business · 💼 business

palantir paid just £2m in uk corporation tax in 2024 despite declaring profits of over £25m, an effective rate of just over 8% against the 25% headline rate. the report from cictar, commissioned by unison, says the company shifts european revenues to its us parent via transfer pricing, booking only 4% of revenue abroad even though 26% comes from non-us customers. for example, uk revenues shown as £159m in uk filings but £247m in stock market filings. palantir holds an estimated £670m in government contracts, including a £240m mod deal without tender. globally its effective tax rate is 1.4%, and it paid no us federal tax last year, storing up credits from share options and losses that could keep it tax-free for nearly a decade. the company also uses share options to reduce tax, shifting the burden to employees. palantir says it complies with tax regimes and transfer pricing is standard practice.

why it matters: low effective tax rate and revenue shifting raise governance and reputational risk for a top ai contractor.

source: theguardian_business
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