“Europe’s top regulatory official is seeking to force large companies to disclose how much tax they pay in each country where they operate, a measure some politicians say could curb tax avoidance,” John O’Donnell reports for Reuters.
“Michel Barnier, the European commissioner in charge of drafting business regulation, said in a speech in Amsterdam that rules which will force banks to report their profits, taxes and subsidies by country from 2015 should be extended to cover other companies,” O’Donnell reports. “Corporate tax avoidance has become a big international political issue over the last year and was given new impetus this week by a U.S. Senate report into Apple Inc… Apple said it pays all the tax due in every country where it operates.”
O’Donnell reports, “Tax campaigners, who have been emboldened by public anger at media reports of widespread corporate tax avoidance at a time of austerity, say naming and shaming low tax payers will deter avoidance. U.S. coffee chain Starbucks agreed to pay an additional 20 million pounds in UK tax last year, after a Reuters investigation showed it assured investors the country was a profitable market after telling tax authorities its operations there lost money.”
MacDailyNews Take: The UK’s government most recent annual spending totaled £694.89 billion. Starbucks’ extra £20 million fueled the UK government for 15 minutes and 9 seconds.
O’Donnell reports, “Big business is strongly opposed to country-by-country reporting which companies say would impose unreasonable administrative burdens. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international advisory body, has said the practice of companies shifting profits out of countries where they are earned into tax havens was growing. The G20 group of leading economies has asked the OECD to consider proposals to tackle the problem and the think tank is due to issue a report in July… Britain has said it backs additional disclosure by companies about their tax affairs, on a voluntary basis.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully all of this recent brouhaha results in positive change (dramatic simplification) regarding corporate taxes and, hopefully, other types of taxation as well.
Related article:
If Apple paid more tax, we might pay less or something – May 22, 2013