US based data-analytics company Palantir has found ways to avoid at least €12m in European taxes, according to a report published on Wednesday (5 August).
According to a study by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research, the world’s largest surveillance company were found to shift European profits to the US, where they are cleared of all federal income tax responsibilities, while also relying on stock-based compensation for their staff.
Sitting among the world’s 50 largest public companies with a current market value of over $320bn (€278bn), Palantir grew a significant company in European public procurement, functioning in daily workflows for various crucial sectors, from healthcare platforms to defence.
The new report illustrates a conservative estimate of a €12m ‘tax gap’ between what Palantir pays in Europe and what they should have paid in 2024 if it hadn’t been shifting its profits abroad.
The data giant provides “some of the most repressive AI tools implicated in human rights violations and used by institutions like ICE and the Pentagon in the US, Europol in Europe, and the IDF in Israel,” said Joana Louçã, spokesperson for the Corporate Europe Observatory.
Palantir’s numerous state contracts have meant that its software “is positioned as part of an indispensable nervous system of the state, that not only locks in dependency, but its data analysis and integration work plays a role in shaping future policy decisions and directions,” Louçã told EUobserver.
Palantir had raised controversy among human rights groups like Amnesty international due to its AI-powered surveillance tools used to target pro-Palestine protestors and non-US citizens in support of Washington’s ICE raids.
Palantir was co-founded by Peter Thiel, the first major Silicon Valley figure to publicly endorse Donald Trump.
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