“Australian tax authorities on Thursday took the unprecedented step of publishing the records of hundreds of companies, including Google Inc. and Apple Inc., which show they paid little or no tax on their in-country earnings,” Byron Kaye and Colin Packham report for Reuters. “Of more than 1,500 largely foreign-owned companies which reported total earnings over A$100 million ($72.11 million) in the 2014 financial year, more than a third paid no tax, the Australian Taxation Office data showed.”
“Australia has led efforts at the Group of 20 rich nations to close tax loopholes, but the ATO’s move appears to have caught ministers off-guard, coming in the same week as the government flagged spending cuts to rein in a budget blowout,” Kaye and Packham report. “‘Just because they don’t pay tax doesn’t mean that they are avoiding tax,’ Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer told reporters, adding the government had strengthened the ATO’s powers to ensure corporations paid their dues. Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan criticized certain foreign-owned companies for being ‘overly aggressive in the way they structure their operations.'”
“Apple paid A$74 million tax on its A$247 million taxable income, in line with the country’s 30 percent tax rate but a small fraction of the total A$6.1 billion it made in Australia that year,” Kaye and Packham report. “Google paid A$9 million tax on A$91 million in taxable income, a third of the company tax rate and dwarfed by the A$357 million it made.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If the cost of business goes up dramatically in certain countries, the cost of products paid by consumers in said countries likely will, too. See Brazil, for one example.
Newsflash: Corporations don’t pay taxes, you do. “Corporate taxes” are simply passed along to the consumer. It’s how the government sneakily double-taxes its citizens. You’re taxed on your income and then again on what’s left via higher prices across the board. — MacDailyNews Take, December 4, 2015
[Apple] pays all the taxes it owes, in accordance with Australian law. — Tony King, Apple VP, South Asia & Australia/NZ, April 8, 2015
SEE ALSO:
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Apple announces 1,000 new jobs in Ireland as EU tax ruling nears – November 11, 2015
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EU’s Vestager says will not complete tax inquiries of Apple, others in second quarter – May 5, 2015
Apple warns of potential ‘material’ financial damage from European tax probe – April 29, 2015
Apple may have to pay Ireland 10 years of back taxes – April 30, 2015
Ireland’s Prime Minister: Apple has nothing to fear from end of ‘Double Irish’ tax avoidance strategy – November 4, 2014
Apple says it may lose Irish tax break – October 31, 2014
Ireland to end tax lures that drew U.S. firms – October 14, 2014
EU tax probe spotlights Ireland’s allure for multinationals – October 13, 2014
EU watchdog to give reasons for inquiry into Ireland’s tax treatment of Apple – September 29, 2014
European Commission accuses Apple of prospering from illegal Irish tax deals – September 28, 2014
EU threatens expanded probe into Ireland’s tax practices regarding Apple, Googles, other companies – June 20, 2014
EU’s investigation of Apple’s taxes isn’t going to cause the company any problems – June 13, 2014
EU launches tax avoidance investigations on Apple, Starbucks, Fiat – June 11, 2014
Not in Taxes anymore: On site at Apple’s famous Irish ‘headquarters’ – November 2, 2013
Regan: U.S. tax code spurs loveless foreign corporate ‘marriages’ – May 13, 2014
Ireland to close Apple’s tax loophole, but leave bigger one open – October 15, 2013
G20 think tank OECD proposes blueprint for global crackdown on tax avoidance – July 19, 2013
Thomas Sowell on Apple, corporate taxes, and ‘the road to serfdom’ – May 28, 2013
Taxing Apple just taxes you – May 24, 2013
Don’t tax Apple, tax its shareholders – May 24, 2013
If Apple paid more tax, we might pay less or something – May 22, 2013
Apple CEO Tim Cook pounds another nail into the Keynesian coffin – May 22, 2013
Apple CEO Cook makes no apology for company’s tax strategy – May 22, 2013