“Consumer electronics giant Apple paid no income tax to Inland Revenue over the past decade despite selling billions of dollars worth of iPhones and iPads to New Zealanders,” Matt Nippert reports for The New Zealand Herald. “Green Party co-leader James Shaw said Apple was not paying its fair share. ‘It is absolutely extraordinary that they are able to get away with paying zero tax in this country. I really like Apple products – they’re incredibly innovative – but it looks like their tax department is even more innovative than their product designers,’ Shaw said.”
“Spark chief executive Simon Moutter said Apple’s zero tax bill reinforced his concerns that New Zealand’s tax base was threatened by the burgeoning wave of technology companies,” Nippert reports. “‘Some of these companies are willing to use every trick in the book to minimise the tax they pay towards the cost of running our schools, hospitals and social infrastructure,’ Moutter said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Blah, blah… Let’s go hunting for the buried lede…
“According to financial statements for the company’s local subsidiary, Apple Sales New Zealand, total sales here since 2007 amount to $4.2 billion. The accounts also show apparent income tax payments of $37 million – but a close reading shows this sum was actually sent abroad to the Australian Tax Office, an arrangement that has been in place since at least 2007,” Nippert reports. “Had Apple reported the same healthy profit margin in New Zealand as it did for its operations globally it would have paid $356m in taxes over the period.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, and had pigs sprouted wings, jet travel would be far more perilous. Now, where’d Matt bury that lede? Oh, here it is, way down in the 15th paragraph…
“Apple’s New Zealand operations are wholly owned by an Australian parent and appear to be run from there,” Nippert reports. “A tax treaty between the two countries sees dual claims on income tax default to where the company is controlled.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Legal.
