Apple paid a tax rate of “0.005% in 2014“ OR “€50 for every €1 million” from its EU profits
Is paying $14.5 billion (€13) plus interest in back taxes fair? Not really since the EU can only ask for the last 10 years - from 2003 to 2013. Therefore, Apple is getting off likely for its special tax arrangement from approx. 1980 to 2002!
"Member States cannot give tax benefits to selected companies – this is illegal under EU state aid rules. The Commission's investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years. In fact, this selective treatment allowed Apple to pay an effective corporate tax rate of 1 per cent on its European profits in 2003 down to 0.005 per cent in 2014."
The Commission can order recovery of illegal state aid for a ten-year period preceding the Commission's first request for information in 2013. Ireland must now recover the unpaid taxes in Ireland from Apple for the years 2003 to 2014 of up to €13 billion, plus interest.
European Commission - Press release
“The standard rate of Irish corporate tax is 12.5%. The Commissions's investigation concluded that Apple had effectively paid 1% tax on its European profits in 2003 and about 0.005% in 2014.”
That is “roughly €50 for every €1 million in Apple’s European profit.”, Margrethe Vestager
ALL of Ireland's healthcare budget
66% of its social welfare bill
27% of Apple's 2015 profit
3. Paying Back Taxes is a “drop in the ocean”
tax avoidance is one of the reasons why Apple has more than $200 billion offshore
“The sheer size of the bill, the largest tax repayment order in the EU’s history, should be a drop in the ocean for Apple. ... As the following infographic shows, the tech giant has enormously deep pockets, holding over $200 billion in foreign profits outside the United States.”
4. Multinational Corporations put on Notice
Since June 2013, the Commission has been investigating the tax ruling practices of Member States. It extended this information inquiry to all Member States in December 2014. In October 2015, the Commission concluded that Luxembourg and the Netherlands had granted selective tax advantages to Fiat and Starbucks, respectively. In January 2016, the Commission concluded that selective tax advantages granted by Belgium to least 35 multinationals, mainly from the EU, under its "excess profit" tax scheme are illegal under EU state aid rules. The Commission also has two ongoing in-depth investigations into concerns that tax rulings may give rise to state aid issues in Luxembourg, as regards Amazon and McDonald's.
The Commission launched a further package of initiatives to combat corporate tax avoidance within the EU and throughout the world on 27 January of this year. As a direct result, Member States have already agreed to tackle the most prevalent loopholes in national laws that allow tax avoidance to take place and to extend their automatic exchange of information to country-by-country reporting of tax-related financial information of multinationals. A proposal is also on the table to make some of this information public. All of our work rests on the simple principle that all companies, big and small, must pay tax where they make their profits.
European Commission - Press release
5. American Government Siding with Apple and other tax avoidance companies
because the American governement wants the money for itself
Just last week, the Treasury Department released a report criticizing any efforts to claw back taxes from American companies. The document repeatedly claimed that the European Commission did not have the right to undertake the clawbacks and that they could harm America’s efforts to collect taxes from domestic companies with vast international operations.
“That outcome is deeply troubling as it would effectively constitute a transfer of revenue to the E.U. from the U.S. government and its taxpayers,” Robert B. Stack, a senior Treasury official, said in the report.
EU Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager’s announcement
6. Australia is cracking down
Technology giant Apple had total income of about $6.1 billion, but only $247 million of that was taxable income.
The company's tax payment was the largest of the multinational tech giants at just over $74 million, but that only equates to around 1 per cent of its total income in the 2013-14 financial year.
Apple's competitor Microsoft had taxable income close to $104 million, less than a fifth of its total revenue of $568 million. Its tax bill was about $31 million — just 5 per cent of its income.
Google's total income was about $358 million, but only a quarter of that was taxable. Google's tax bill was $9 million.
Embattled car manufacturer Volkswagen made almost $2 billion in 2013-14. But, its taxable income was $35 million and it only paid $10 million.
ABC New Australia, Almost 600 major corporations did not pay tax in 2013-14 financial year, Australian Taxation Office says
7. Fortune 500 Companies Hold a Record $2.4 Trillion Offshore. They May Be Avoiding up to $695 Billion in U.S. Taxes
