The internet giant Yahoo is shifting control of its Australian operations from Ireland to the Netherlands, another country that is commonly used by US multinationals for tax avoidance.

The move is part of a reorganisation of Yahoo’s global structure to make Ireland the linchpin of its European sales, but which also appears designed to remove this country from influence over Yahoo’s assets in the rest of the world.

Ireland is regularly lambasted in Australian media as a perceived tax shelter for the Australian operations of US multinationals, including Google and Apple. Australian authorities tightened corporate tax rules there in 2012, and cited the increased use of Ireland to route profits as a problem.

Public criticism

The Irish Times

asked Yahoo if the Dutch move was influenced by the regular public criticism in Australia of Irish tax rules, but it had not responded last night.

The Irish Yahoo subsidiary in question is called Overture Search Marketing Asia (Osma), which owns Yahoo’s “pay-per-click” and “search marketing” operations in Australia and South Korea. It has no employees.

The Korean operation is listed as dormant in the Irish firm’s accounts and the directors say its activities are “being wound down”, leaving the Australian arm as the only functioning unit owned by the Irish company.Documents filed this week in the Companies Registration Office in Dublin by Osma show that it is being subsumed into Yahoo Netherlands BV, a critical cog in Yahoo’s global tax structure.

In February, Yahoo began routing all of its European operations through another Dublin company called Yahoo EMEA, leading to criticism of the company in the UK and, especially, France.