Match Group’s Tax Team Brings More Research In-House

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Challenge: Create a new corporate tax department

Hundreds of millions of singles have created meaningful connections with the online dating products from Match Group. Since pioneering the concept of online dating more than 20 years ago, Match Group, through its subsidiaries, today offers a diverse portfolio of applications and products — including Tinder, Match, Meetic, OkCupid, Hinge, Pairs, PlentyOfFish, and other brands — to enable connections across the spectrum of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, and backgrounds.

Having more than doubled revenue and subscribers across all platforms since its IPO in 2015, Match Group became the most successful business owned by parent company IAC, which operates Vimeo, Dotdash, and Care.com, among others. With a $40 billion market capitalization, Match Group separated from IAC in July of 2020.

We spoke with one tax executive that the online dating company hired to expand the tax department’s capabilities and take over global tax strategy, planning, and reporting for the business as it spun off from IAC.

“Many of our tax services were performed by our parent company before the separation,” said the executive. “My job was to build a centralized global tax function for Match Group that would manage the complex spin-off transaction and then expand the tax team to support our rapidly growing company.”

Solution: Put professional tax research tools at the team’s fingertips

As Match Group set out to expand its team and resources, the site began the search for a robust platform of tax research tools to be a trusted source of up-to-date news, analysis, primary sources, and more across federal, state, and international tax areas.

After evaluating and comparing solutions, he chose Bloomberg Tax Research solution for its ease of use, intuitive organization of tools and resources for the tax professional, and seamless integration of research sources and tools.

[See how our corporate tax solutions equip you with tomorrow’s tech M&A, R&D, and digital services tax intel across jurisdictions.]

“Going through a spin-off is a big milestone for any company,” said the tax executive. “With our subscription to Bloomberg Tax Research, we get the expert analysis, news, and resources we need to help us navigate our complex tax environment as an independent company no longer relying on our parent.”

As a global technology company, Match Group needs its tax team to maintain a deep understanding of taxation issues as they evolve at the local, national, and international level and use that knowledge to inform the company’s tax strategy.

“I read the Bloomberg daily updates on issues like digital service taxes and other topics that can meaningfully impact our business,” said the tax executive. “For example, anyone who has ever looked into permanent establishment rules under tax treaties knows there are many areas of ambiguity. It’s important to have expert commentary within Bloomberg research to help think through different issues like these.”

Results: Save time and money understanding complex topics

Match Group credits Bloomberg Tax with giving his tax team — which more than doubled in size in one year — the tools it needs to have informed discussions about complex tax issues.

“I want my group to have the mindset and the intellectual curiosity to find the answers to questions on their own, and Bloomberg Tax Research is a big part of helping me do that,” the executive said.

With in-depth analysis on the issues facing technology companies, Bloomberg helps the executive empower his team to be informed tax partners to the company.

“When a complex question comes up, we can start with the code, go to the regulations, build an argument, and be able to support and document it — all made possible by the tools within the Bloomberg platform,” said the executive. “I think many tax professionals have the itch to understand and enjoy the legal analysis of issues. Bloomberg Tax helps us scratch that itch.”

The executive believes the company’s subscription to Bloomberg more than pays for itself.

“What we spend with Bloomberg Tax Research is far less than the [cost of] daily issues that come up for which we would otherwise have to ask a law or accounting firm,” he said. “Bloomberg research helps us understand complex topics, which saves us time and money while increasing our team’s knowledge.”

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