“HM Treasury is considering imposing an extra tax on tech giants like Amazon, Facebook, Google’s Alphabet and Apple on their revenues rather than their profits because they are not so easy to shift from one jurisdiction to another,” Caoimhe Toman reports for WebFG. “Chancellor Philip Hammond is expected to announce this new measure in a speech next month as a conclusion to the Treasury’s analysis on how to create a fair tax system for online firms.”
“Mel Stride, the financial secretary to the Treasury, told the BBC that companies should pay a fair level of tax regarding the significant profits they’re generating,” Toman reports. “Last year, the European Commission launched a review of the tax practices of large overseas tech firms as it estimated many were paying just half of traditional rivals. ‘The underlying principle for corporation tax is that profits should be taxed where the value is created. However, in a digitalised world, it is not always very clear what that value is, how to measure it, or where it is created,” a statement from the Commission said.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If and when they grab even more taxes, we’re sure they’ll spend it oh-so-efficiently.
SEE ALSO:
Royal Society of Arts proposes raising taxes on Apple, Amazon, Facebook more for UK universal basic income – February 16, 2018
Why a record $38 billion U.S. tax payment is a good deal for Apple – January 18, 2018
Ireland expects final disputed Apple bill remaining around $16 billion – February 22, 2018
EU court rejects U.S. government intervention in Apple’s Irish $15 billion tax case – December 15, 2017
EU sues Ireland over $15.3 billion tax clawback from Apple – October 4, 2017
Ireland opposes EU’s 13 billion euro Apple tax grab, calls it unjustified – August 17, 2017
Apple close to deal protecting Ireland in fight over EU tax grab – August 11, 2017
Ireland seeks custodian for Apple $15.2 billion in back taxes as collection nears – July 22, 2017
EU Commissioner Vestager: Ireland ‘taking too long’ to recover Apple tax – May 19, 2017
EU’s hypocritical Margrethe Vestager going after Apple while backing Madeira tax avoidance scheme – February 14, 2017
Apple has missed the deadline to pay $13.9 billion to Ireland in illegal tax benefits – January 31, 2017
Apple CFO Maestri: What the EC is doing here is a disgrace for European citizens, it should be ashamed’ – December 19, 2016
Apple’s EU tax nemesis Margrethe Vestager takes aim at other U.S. companies’ offshore profits – September 19, 2016
The ‘Brexit-Apple’ connection: What in the world was Margrethe Vestager thinking? – September 12, 2016
EU ministers line up to take tax bites out of Apple – September 12, 2016
Former EU competition commissioner: Vestager claim that Apple owes back taxes an incorrect use of EU law – September 2, 2016
Irish government to fight EU on Apple tax – September 2, 2016
Treasury accuses EU of trying to steal U.S. tax revenues with Apple decision – September 1, 2016
Irish residents opposed to EU’s tax demand of Apple – September 1, 2016
Apple Inc. pushes back against EU tax grab – September 1, 2016
Apple may repatriate billions of dollars next year after new U.S. President takes office – September 1, 2016
U.S. tax code allows for dramatic retaliation against EU overreach in Apple case – September 1, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook on EU tax demand: ‘No one did anything wrong here and Ireland is being picked on… It is total political crap’ – September 1, 2016
U.S. Treasury: The European Commission’s retroactive tax demands on Apple are unfair – August 30, 2016
EU demands Apple pay massive $14.5 billion in taxes plus interest – August 30, 2016
And britts winge on about how they pay more for iPhones (and other imported bits and bobs)
We’re Brits, not britts and we whinge, only Aussies winge. And I’m sick and tired of paying through the roof for those bits and bobs.
What a difference an “h” makes…
Should we get you an interpreter?
Meanwhile… as I’m frequently told, you can not pay for those bits and bobs…
Who are you frequently told by? and when you say you, do you mean me personally or the collective of the nation as a whole.
The interpreter would be for you personally, since you speak the queen’ s (intentionally lowercase, that’s the Yankee way) English.
I’ve been told by all that i m not required to buy Apple. Either are you of you don’t like the price of the nuts and bobs…
Sorry – forget to put my proper name.
Thanks, that explains it.
Can I just call you whinybitch for brevity?
Thanks for that. In the old days there was no one to correct them. That’s how we ended up with bastardized words such as Aluminum, Sodder, Color, Check and countless others. I guess I should be happy about Business not being biznis or phsycology not being cycology, and few others like that.
You mean like how you’re whingeing on about us Brits? #ironyfail
You should know that the US got a huge repatriation of Apple’s EU $70B profits, on which they paid an effective profits tax rate of 0.1% by utilising the Double Dutch +Irish offshore accounting options. The increased payment – £136m, now due for the period pre 2015 amounts to a rate of less than an additional 1% of UK declared services earnings – £14B up to 2015 and is the result of an extensive audit by HM Taxes, having previously relied on Apple’s self assessment of their tax liability. £136m / £14B x 100 = <1% extra. Going forward Apple will pay at a rate of somewhere around 12 – 15% on their UK earnings.
And You xenophobic nutters act as though Apple is being crucified by the UK.
My own company paid a rate of 26% plus many other local business rates and workforce benefits. I do get VAT back on materials which allows me to compete.
I’m actually happy about my tax obligations.
So what are you whingeing about? Oh yeah…I forgot…for America to win, everyone else must lose.
… you know what they say, losers gotta lose. Now bugger off, asshole.
What many of the arguments on this article either do not understand or ignore, is that all taxes (all costs for that matter) are paid by the ultimate consumer of the product. Manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, etc. just pass the cost alone to the consumer. Companies are interim consumers in that they buy parts, labor, other companies, etc., but they pass all those costs, and attending taxes along to the ultimate consumer who buys their products. Everyone in the chain passes the cost along to the person who pass ALL the costs along with whatever profit the company wants or is able to make.
It is no skin off of Apple’s nose except that it drives the cost of the product up so that makes the product so costly that they sell fewer product.
Correction: “who ‘pays’ ALL the costs along with whatever profit the company wants or is able to make.”
They’ll need it once they leave the EU. Good riddance.
Why thank you Road Warrior, miss you too.
Just don’t leave the planet, the EU may not be for you, but I’m sure you will do fine once the dust settles.
let me tell you how it will be,
there’s one for you, nineteen for me.
Thankfully Britain hasn’t had a supertax in place for nearly half a century, but the remaining members of the Beatles certainly won’t have forgotten. Today the average Brit takes home 57% of their income, Americans 60% and Russians 87%. So for anyone hating taxation and living in Britain or the US, I suggest emigrating to Moscow.
Ask the Beatles and Rolling Stones how their British tax thing worked out (like 98%?).
Didn’t I just say that? My point was that Britain hasn’t had a supertax system (83% plus progressive 15% on unearned income) in place for nearly half a century (well actually Harold Wilson introduced it in the 60s) and in 2018 the average UK taxpayer pays a similar percentage of tax to most other European countries and the US. Back in the days of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones Russia was part of the Soviet Union a communist state, now the average Russian earns 87% of their income, times change.
Just don’t work in two countries. They say there is no Double Jeopardy tax wise but I found differently to the point the sum total of my income being taxed was going to be 60%! Fortunately I found a workaround.
Leeches
Many species are bloodsucking parasites…. Not unlike if not EXACTLY LIKE … Her Majesty’s Treasury. A species of bloodsuckers.
leech
noun
the welfare system is supposed to help the needy, not feed the leeches: parasite, bloodsucker; informal scrounger, sponger, bottom feeder, freeloader.
leech 1 |lēCH|
noun
1 an aquatic or terrestrial annelid worm with suckers at both ends. Many species are bloodsucking parasites, especially of vertebrates, and others are predators.
[Class Hirudinea: many species. See also medicinal leech.]
2 a person who extorts profit from or sponges on others: they are leeches feeding off the hardworking majority.
verb [ no obj. ]
habitually exploit or rely on: he’s leeching off the kindness of others.
Leeches
Many species are bloodsucking parasites…. Not unlike if not EXACTLY LIKE … Her Majesty’s Treasury. A species of bloodsuckers.
leech
noun
the welfare system is supposed to help the needy, not feed the leeches: parasite, bloodsucker; informal scrounger, sponger, bottom feeder, freeloader.
leech 1 |lēCH|
There is a signal of MONEY everywhere from left to right, even our beloved aging queen got one foot to the grave still insisting on money. Hallelujah.
FAIR TAXES. What an oxymoron.
Popular taxes is an oxymoron, however fair tax does exist, even though it is subjective to the bearer as to what percentage of tax is fair and what level is unfair. Is 5% fair? or is it unfair because it’s so low it takes away revenue from the needy and disadvantaged? is 95% unfair? because it’s so high it would take away income from the needy and disadvantaged and act as a disincentive to the wealthy. The task of government is to try to find a tolerable and fair balance, where they levy enough tax to keep society functioning and encourage workers and entrepreneurs to keep being motivated to generate wealth. Taxes will never be popular, but at some unquantifiable point they will be fair. Unless of course you don’t believe in taxes period, in which case you don’t believe in civilised society and would see anarchy in it’s place.
“Apple that make vast profits accessing UK resident’s data.”
Article makes no sense whatsoever. I can understand the rationale as applied to Google and Facebook and Amazon, with pure online revenue, but Apple’s sales are mostly thru stores, just like traditional companies.
Taxes on revenues are horrid if margins are not considered.
On the plus side this means Amazon will pay huge taxes based on their revenues instead of their meager profits. One could foresee their tax bill consuming most of their profit margin!
Indeed this is the fundamental problem that needs to be addressed and why it needs to be done so now for there’s going to have to be a flexible approach to this and I suspect exactly how is going to be problematical until viable solutions can be worked out. I suspect it’s never going to be perfect, I suspect that is why it’s been ignored or put off for so long until indeed continuing to do so has become untenable.
The only real solution would be for all of the industrialized countries to agree on an equitable way to tax the revenue of multinational companies in proportion to their economic activity—and thus the cost of governmental services they require—in each of the jurisdictions where they operate. Those who claim that businesses should pay no corporate tax (because the shareholders pay individual tax) ignore the fact that the facilities that require costly services may not be in a country where many shareholders live.
That is never going to happen because the new wave of nationalism rejects the very notion of international cooperation.
“a new world order is fading from view…”
thank God.
Taxation of a foreign corporation is not just for paying the costs, its a licensing fee in exchange for the freedom to operate. It’s for profit. What? We favor market capitalism and corporate level socialism?
I discussed this with a banker friend of mine 7 of 8 years ago he concluded back then it is the only sensible way of taxing operations within the country where businesses make their profits in the digital age. How can any government allow a situation where a business operates and profits from their population and infrastructure without any taxation on those operations while local businesses cannot therefore compete. Many of those multinationals potentially employ very few, even none in those markets so how else can taxation be generated in what otherwise would be a decaying and shrinking market in the longer term benefiting no one in the end. It simply is not sustainable to run your economy in the traditional manner while business, jobs and finance and tax revenue disappears abroad. It’s about time countries started to work out the new tax solutions required. Only a deluded fool or those directly profiting from this corporate manipulation would do nothing.
HM Taxes has redefined what Apple must pay going forward within the legal framework but unfortunately and predictably the Tories refuse to close the offshore banking loopholes because… well… you know. So Apple will never pay anything like my company rate. Strangely, I don’t blame Apple.
Doesn’t the ubiquitous goods and services tax on everything already tax revenue rather than value?
Greedy governments.🙄
The U.S. needs to start doing the same for all foreign companies making a fortune in the U.S.
Addicted to tax habit. Make the lazy Brits work and tax THEIR income. Phase out wasteful programs like national health care.