Facebook Closes Holding Companies In Ireland That Help It Pay Less In Taxes: Report

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) has shut down several holding companies in Ireland responsible for international sales.

What Happened: The social media platform has moved one of its intellectual properties units out of Ireland, the country where it was able to move billions in profits largely without being taxed, the Times of London reported on Saturday. 

The company is also said to have moved billions of euros from the units to the US.

According to the latest available documents, Facebook’s main Irish unit only paid $101 million (€83 million) in taxes from more than $15 billion in profits.

Why It Matters: The decision comes after the US Internal Revenue Service sued Facebook for supposedly downplaying the value of the Irish units' sales and hiding profits from the US in February.

Price Action: Facebook stock closed at $267.40, 0.26% lower, on Thursday. It went down by 0.15% more and traded at $267.01 in the post-market session.