Only 4 per cent of Palantir’s pre-tax profit was recorded outside the United States in 2025, although overseas markets generated 26 per cent of its revenue. A new report argues that the company shifts profits to the US, where its tax burden is lower.
Palantir reports far less profit outside the US than its international sales and workforce would suggest. In 2025, countries outside the US generated 26 per cent of Palantir’s revenue and employed 28 per cent of its workforce. However, the company recorded only four per cent of its pre-tax profit abroad. The remaining 96 per cent was recorded in the US, where Palantir paid no federal tax for the third consecutive year.
The Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR) estimates around €12m less in corporate tax between what Palantir pays in Europe and what they would have paid if they didn’t shift profits to the US.
Companies cannot be allowed to minimise their tax contribution while maximising their income from public contracts.
— Jan Willem Goudriaan, EPSU
The report, together with the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), examines Palantir’s global accounts and the 2024 financial statements of subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Italy.
“The EU must make tax fairness a condition of receiving public money. Large bidders must disclose country-by-country tax data, obtain an EU Tax Compliance Certificate, and face exclusion when they refuse transparency or use high-risk structures that shift profits away from where they are earned,” EPSU’s General Secretary, Jan Willem Goudriaan, told EU Perspectives.
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“Companies cannot be allowed to minimise their tax contribution while maximising their income from public contracts. This can all be addressed in the forthcoming review of the EU Procurement Directive. However, a leaked draft revealed weakening of the legal basis in procurement rules to do this.”
How Palantir keeps European profits low
Rather than receiving the full value of contracts carried out in their countries, local subsidiaries may be paid only for selling, installing and supporting Palantir’s software. As CICTAR explains, Palantir subsidiaries in Europe provide services to the US parent on cost-plus terms, leaving low taxable margins locally while related-party payments move value back to the US.
The United Kingdom is the largest market outside the US. It generated $427m, equivalent to 10 per cent of the company’s global revenue, in 2025. Yet the UK is not among the countries receiving its largest corporate tax payments. The company paid $5.8m in South Korea, $4.8m in Japan, $2.8m in France and $1.7m in Germany. But they are all smaller markets than the UK.
There are many concerns around the US company Palantir (…) On top of that, it avoids paying its fair share of taxes.
— Pasquale Tridico (The Left/ITA)
CICTAR points to a mismatch between Palantir’s global and British accounts. In 2024, the company’s US filing reported around $304m in revenue from customers located in the UK. However, only about $203m in revenue appeared in the accounts of its British subsidiary. The difference is roughly $101m.
“The EU should worry because Palantir is a symbol of an even bigger problem,” a CICTAR representative told EU Perspectives. “There is a large part of the economy which cannot be effectively taxed, starving the public sector of resources. And this will only become worse as AI becomes more dominant and if the US becomes more aggressive in the protection of its tech sector companies.”
Global minimum tax weakened
The OECD’s global minimum tax was intended to ensure that large multinational companies paid at least 15 per cent. The 2021 deal promised a two-pillar solution. Pillar One would reallocate part of Big Tech’s profits to the countries where their consumers are. Pillar Two would impose a 15-per-cent minimum corporate tax on groups with turnover above €750m. This global deal collapsed in early 2025 when Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing America from the agreement.
In January 2026, 147 countries and jurisdictions agreed on a new “side-by-side” arrangement for the global minimum tax. It introduced safe harbours for multinational groups headquartered in countries whose domestic tax systems meet certain conditions. This has reopened the debate over whether the EU needs its own digital tax.
Pasquale Tridico (The Left/ITA), chair of the European Parliament’s tax subcommittee, said European governments “should stop awarding public contracts to companies that extract money from public budgets but do not contribute to finance public services, social protection and public pensions”. “There are many concerns around the US company Palantir, its spyware, surveillance technology, and the extreme views of its founders. On top of that, it avoids paying its fair share of taxes,” he added.
