Apple paying less than 1% tax in the EU

By Naomi Fowler – TaxJusticeNet: We’re pleased to share this new study commissioned by GUE/NGL members of the European Parliament’s TAX3 special committee on tax evasion, tax avoidance and money laundering. You can read more about their very important work here. The report was written by Emma Clancy and Martin Brehm Christensen and is titled: Exposed: Apple’s Golden Delicious Tax Deals: Is Ireland Helping Apple Pay Less Than 1% Tax In The EU?

 

As it points out, Apple is unlikely to be the only multinational company structured this way. Report co-author Emma Clancy highlights that only this month Microsoft has merged the two parts of its Double Irish structure, which is likely to indicate that Microsoft is now, or intends to, replicate the structure used by Apple.

Here are the key findings from the GUE/NGL report, which we’re reproducing here below. You can read the full report here.

 

Apple may have paid as little as 0.7% tax in the European Union (EU) from 2015-2017.

Using data from Apple Inc’s 10-K filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, we estimate that as a result of the new Irish structure, and Apple’s broader global tax structure, Apple’s tax rate for the period 2015-2017 for its non-US profits is between 3.7% and 6.2%.

Two alternative calculations of the average rate paid on non-US profits reach similar results, of between 4.5% and 6.7%, and between 4.7% and 6.9%.

Using data from Apple Inc’s 10-K filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission we estimate that Apple is paid corporate tax at a rate of between 1.7% and 8.8% in the European Union during the period 2015-2017. This estimate assumes that Apple’s provisions for foreign tax equals money actually transferred to foreign governments.

 

If we assume the highly likely scenario that Apple’s provisions for foreign tax is substantially smaller than the amount actually transferred to foreign governments, we estimate that Apple may have paid as little as 0.7% tax in the EU from 2015-2017.

 

Applying the range of estimated tax rates paid in the EU from 2015-2017, we estimate that Apple has avoided paying between €4 billion and €21 billion in tax to EU tax collection agencies from 2015-2017.

 

In a nutshell then – Apple pays about 0.7% tax in the EU and have avoided paying somewhere between €4billion to €21billion along the way.

Read the full about Apple and its tax HERE by TaxJusticeNetwork

 

 

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