[disgruntledphd2]

TBH, it looks like this was just money moved around from other low/no-tax subsidiaries.

    Profit after tax increased ... due to the liquidation of two subsidiaries. 

Like, it's still bad, but this money presumably represents many years of accumulated profits, as otherwise the number makes no sense (MS made a profit of $14bn in 2020).

See: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20794038-microsoft-r... for the actual directors report.