The analysis comes as a study found that the Covid-19 donations made by major tech firms only amount to 0.2% of their offshore profits.
If Netflix were to divert their offshore profit held in tax havens to the UK, the film and TV mogul could contribute a staggering extra $1.8bn to Covid-19 relief, research reveals.
The Irish Money Funnel report also reveals that other notable tech companies, namely Facebook, Microsoft and Google, also pay the significantly lower corporation tax by registering revenue in Ireland, as opposed to the UK and the US.
The streaming service recorded its highest ever rise in paid subscriptions over the first quarter of 2020 with 15.77m new signups, as demand for TV series and films surged with Brits looking to pass the time in lockdown.
This increase led to a high quarterly revenue of $5.8bn – just 7% of which is currently reported in the UK and leads to $7.7m paid in tax. If 0.17% of the profit that the corporation holds in Ireland were diverted to the UK, a further $1.3m could be created.
Netflix currently reports 0.17% of its global revenue from Ireland, where the corporation tax is 6.5% lower than the UK. If the company were to subject this portion of its revenue to the UK’s higher 19% corporation tax, a further $644,077 would be added to the economy each year on top of current contributions.
This extra money could be used to purchase 577m NCP surgical face masks, 7,536 at-home Covid-19 antibody testing kits, or make up the furloughed wages of almost 86 workers, based on the average annual salary in the UK.
The analysis comes as a study found that the Covid-19 donations made by major tech firms – including Apple, Facebook and Google – only amount to 0.2% of their offshore profits that benefit from significantly lower tax rates.
Apple has saved over $17.7bn over the last year by holding 65% of its global revenue in Ireland, while Microsoft has both avoided paying $5.4bn. If both companies were to subject their profit to the UK tax rate, they could add an extra $14.7bn to the economy.
