The US government began its court case against Facebook earlier this week in a San Francisco court, alleging the social media Goliath owes $9 billion in unpaid taxes.
It is alleged by the Internal Revenue Service, which is responsible for collecting taxes from individuals and companies for the US government that Facebook Inc understated the value of the intellectual property it sold to an Irish subsidiary in 2010 while building out global operations.
This was done, the IRS claim, to take advantage of Ireland’s corporate tax rates, which are significantly lower than those in the United States, a common practice among US multinational corporations.
Facebook expects the trial to last three to four weeks and senior people at the company are to be called to give sworn testimony including hardware chief Andrew Bosworth and Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer called to testify, according to a document the company filed in January.
Other witnesses being called to the trial are Naomi Gleit and Javier Olivan, veterans of Facebook’s aggressive growth team, and Chief Revenue Officer David Fischer Fox News reports.
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