Starbucks pays corporation tax of less than €4,200

Starbucks’s Irish operation paid €4,196 in corporation tax last year after two years of making no contribution to the State’s coffers.

Abridged accounts just filed by Ritea Ltd — formerly Starbucks Coffee Company (Ireland) Ltd — states that the company would have been liable for a tax bill of €289,929 in 2014.

However, the tax bill was reduced through mainly €200,000 in non-taxable income and €83,048 in group relief.

Starbucks Coffee Company (Ireland) did pay corporation tax of €34,980 in 2011 in Ireland — its only corporation tax paid since 2005 and during that six-year period the firm paid €5.7m in royalty and licensing fees to its parent company.

Pre-tax profits last year rose threefold to €2.3m.

Ritea’s accounts show the firm had the sharp rise in profits largely as a result of an exceptional gain of €1.27m. The firm had the increase in pre-tax profits in spite of its gross profit dropping 28% from €2m to €1.4m in the 10 months to the end of July last.

The €2.3m pre-tax profit last year followed a pre-tax profit of €745,707 in 2013.

The Starbucks’ operation in Ireland is licensed to Dublin-based Entertainment Enterprises Group, run by Colum and Ciaran Butler.

The profit last year reduced the firm’s accumulated losses from €9.82m to €7.5m. The firm’s shareholder funds increased from €5.6m to €7.99m.

The firm’s cash during the year reduced by more than half from €599,075 to €242,573.