Dublin-headquartered Afilias is shifting its base to the US to take advantage of Trump tax cuts
The domain registry firm welcomed the ‘favourable’ changes to the US tax rate.
DUBLIN-HEADQUARTERED DOMAIN registry firm Afilias is shifting its base to the US to take advantage of Trump-led tax cuts in its primary market.
The company, which already has its operational headquarters in the US, manages internet domain-name registrations on behalf of its clients, which include web hosting giant GoDaddy.
The firm announced today that it was moving its headquarters to the US to take advantage of “favourable tax changes” recently introduced in the country.
President Donald Trump signed new tax rules late last year that reduced the headline US corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.
The move has been labelled a significant threat to Ireland’s ability to attract US-based investment, although Afilias is the first firm to publicly announce a shift away from the Republic based on the changes.
According to the most recent public accounts for its Irish operations, Afilias declared a tax charge of $9.89 million in 2016 on profits of $38.6 million and revenue of $106.7 million. However it is not clear how much of the tax was paid in other jurisdictions.
The company added that being headquartered in the US will help grow the business further as its biggest customers, including GoDaddy, are based there.
“More of the company’s shares are now owned by Americans, and our executive group is increasingly becoming American,” chief executive Hal Lubsen said.
Afilias originally established its Dublin headquarters in 2001. The Irish operation, based in the IFSC, is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US entity Afilias, Inc.
The new parent company is registered in Delaware while its global headquarters has been moved to Pennsylvania. Lubsen said the move will have no impact on customers.
Afilias also said that “pre-existing staff arrangements will not change”. Latest accounts for the company show it employed an average of 286 people in 2016, a slight increase on the figure for 2015.
Its staff are based in offices in Canada, India, Australia and China, as well as Ireland and the US.
