Spongebob, Transformers and other ViacomCBS properties reportedly costs American taxpayers $4 Billion

Paramount Pictures, owned by ViacomCBS, has licensed international rights for their content, including box-office franchises such as Spongebob and Transformers, in a complex way to get out of paying taxes in the United States.

According to a study by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, from 2015 to 2019, Viacom's British company collected $4.5 billion in gross income and only paid around $18 million in taxes.

Included in the same report, through their corporate branches in the Netherlands, Barbados, the Bahamas, Luxembourg, and Britain, they have also avoided paying taxes to the American Government on the $32.5 billion in revenues during the period 2002-2019.

It's estimated that 24% of the companies revenue comes from content licensing, the ability to sell their output to overseas companies, which is where the income the article is based on is from.

According to the New York Times, one past employee sued the companies due to what she deemed "retaliatory firing" after she spoke out about "an illegal tax avoidance scheme in violation of federal law", according to the employee. The lawsuit was dropped months after the filing with both parties settling and the company saying that “we believe the claims to be without merit, and the matter has been resolved."

In response to the study, Viacom stated that the report was "deeply flawed and misleading" and that it "demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of U.S. tax law.”

"ViacomCBS fulfils its tax obligations in all 180-plus countries and the territories we operate, and all of our revenues — including those identified in this report — are fully taxed in relevant jurisdictions around the world, including the United States, as required by applicable law."

This article is based on a study by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), a non-profit organisation investigating multinational corporations since 1973.