Covent Garden, London – one of the largest Apple Stores in the world
New corporate tax measures aimed at preventing multinational companies making profits in the UK and then shifting them overseas where they incur lower taxes could potentially impact a number of tech companies, including Apple, Google and Amazon.
The British government announced a new 25% tax on profits generated in the UK and then “artificially shifted” overseas, reports the BBC …
Chancellor George Osborne announced the new tax as part of the government’s Autumn Statement, an annual review of spending and taxation, specifically mentioning the tech sector, though not naming particular companies.
Some of the largest companies in the world, including those in the tech sector, use elaborate structures to avoid paying taxes.
Today I am introducing a 25% tax on profits generated by multinationals from economic activity here in the UK which they then artificially shift out of the country.
The Financial Times reported last year that Apple’s three main British subsidiaries – Apple (UK), Apple Europe and Apple Retail UK – paid no corporation tax in 2012 despite reporting profits of £68m ($103m). Apple’s international tax arrangements had of course already come under scrutiny by the US Senate earlier that year.
The British government has also declared an intention to close a loophole by which Apple avoids having to charge 20% VAT (UK sales tax) on UK iTunes sales, a move planned to come into effect next year.
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That rainy collection of irrelevant islands does one thing well, produce great musical talent. It must be the constant oppression, CCTV, over taxation, etc. While the majority of the population is completely apathetic and disenfranchised, the gems push through all the muck, possibly making them shine even brighter.
Look, UK, I’m sure the monarchy can cut back on their stipend and you can give corporations like Apple, who pump countless billions into your economy via job creation, payroll taxation and sales tax, some breathing room on corporate tax. In every case they’re following the letter of the law, playing within the rules of the game. Don’t make an attempt to shift the goal posts now out of sheer greed. You’re already robbing your populace blind, give it a rest.
Why should I pay tax on every penny I earn, in both the jobs I do, yet companies get away without paying any tax?
I don’t know if corporate tax is a big problem in the US, but over here we’ve had a lot of big companies like Starbucks, Vodafone, Facebook and Google making billions, but not paying any tax.
Why would you stick up for a huge multinational corporation dodging a responsibility that ordinary people, like you or I, have to face? We’d go to jail if we didn’t pay taxes.
So in order to trot out a cliche about “a rainy collection of irrelevant islands” you use an iPhone or iMac designed by an Englishman to type a comment in the English language over the English invented Internet.
I’ve got ya.
Mate, it’s Apple, Google, Amazon, etc who rob the population by escaping the corporation tax. Are you saying that some of the most profitable companies in the world could not operate if they had to pay tax? Corporation tax is due by law. That’s not changing. Smaller companies cannot afford accountants and lawyers to do this, so it’s not a level playing field and thus not a free market.
Cook whined about the tax code not being simple enough in congress, so here’s a simple idea: pay your bloody corporation tax on the profits you make in the country like it was intended. What if they did? Maybe Osbourne wouldn’t have to fleece us like he does? Maybe the rate could be lower? Maybe the NHS could work better?
I just can’t muster indignation for governments always needing more
money. Governments that squander and rob the citizens of their money for the good of the citizens, for whom the government exists to begin with.
If you really look into it, the story of robinhood is not stealing from the rich to give to the poor, it’s stealing from the ruling class to give back to the citizens what was stolen from them. This has been going on forever.
Cincinnatils1: What has governments stealing from citizens got to do with this? Did you even READ the article?
Yes I read the article. Government needs more fiscal responsibility, not more money. Maciej said corporations rob the citizens. I made the point that government robs the people.
“rainy collection of irrelevant islands”?
Charming. I thought casual racism went out of fashion in the 1960s, but I guess not.
Here’s a thought. Disconnect from the internet for a while, 10 years should do it, then once you’ve matured and have learnt not to behave like a child, try reconnecting a little. Take it slow though.
That’s not racism. Racism is thinking one race is better than other races.
Since no race was specified in the quote “rainy collection of irrelevant islands,” there’s no racism, casual or otherwise.
And really, even if the quote was “rainy collection of irrelevant white, asian, and black men and women,” it still wouldn’t be racist because the quote would refer to a collection of each race, and not the entirety of those races.
I wrote a very eloquent, mild mannered and intelligent response to your post and then deleted it and replaced it with “You’re a complete div, feck off”. Seriously what crock you speak; get back under your rock!
This is probably the least informed comment I’ve read on here, and that’s saying something. If you’re interested, the Royal Family costs less than £1 per person per year to operate and generates billions of pounds through tourism, employment and trade, but please don’t let a fact influence you.
I fail to see why a company that operates in a country should be exempt from paying tax on the products and services it peddles in that region. Then again, I doubt you have a passport or could even identify Europe on a map so I’m not sure why I’m wasting my time with this comment.
Oh no! A corporation has to pay their fair share? Say it isn’t so! Consequently, corporate tax breaks in the USA started just after the 16th Amendment put the burden on the back of the citizens. Given that the bankers of said corporate owners wrote the Amendment…makes sense.
Still, I don’t understand- why defend government’s insatiable need for more and more money?
Why not everyone gives the government less, and make the government drastically cut the waste, just like her citizens had to do during each period of global economic slowdown?
Loopholes may closes but others remain open. Fret not business as usual.
If Apple needs welfare to stay in business maybe they should reconsider their business plan.
That’s what these tax breaks are: welfare.
You and I are subsidizing them.
Absolutely right. Apple wouldn’t be in business if they hadn’t been taking all of our corporate welfare this whole time. Keep leading the good fight Herb, spot on again as usual.
Is it really too much to expect the large corporations to pay a tax that they have so far avoided by paying?
These large multinationals have had the ability to employ firms of accounts and lawyers to help them avoid it, and yet smaller businesses who simply don’t have access to those arrangements have had to pay.
I personally hate paying taxes to successive governments who seem to have an insatiable appetite for more and more taxes and yet continually waste what we pay, at the time ignoring the wishes of the electorate, but I pay because I have to. I therefore expect my fellow citizens both individual and corporate to pay their fair share also.
It makes me sick to see Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Vodafone, Starbucks (fill in the blanks yourself – there are loads more) take the money that I pay them and yet not pay any taxes. These same companies then have the audacity to ask their (mainly) US government to give them an exemption so they can bring those profits back to the USA without paying tax their either, therefore robbing US nationals of the benefits of those same taxes (and my immediate family is split between the US and the UK so don’t accuse me of being biased)
Is it fair for any of us – us “rained on and irrelevant” Brits or our Americans cousins (or sons and daughters in my case) for these companies to avoid paying what we have to?
I can understand an Americans misunderstanding of the cost of our Monarchy or State Health Service, but can I remind those same Americans that their taxes are funding the largest military budget in the world – you too are paying more for something that you should as a result of corporate greed. I’m sure you’d happily pay for that all the same, just as we would happily pay for those things we hold dear.
Remember though, that this is what it comes down to pure and simple – corporate greed.
I’m all for free enterprise – I’ve run and sold successful businesses in my time. I’ve paid more than my fair of taxes and I remember each corporation tax cheque I wrote. They were all painful because they were all a tax on profits my companies had made and which the government was now stealing from me, despite it being the results of my efforts not theirs. It was never lost on me that the money we were paid by our customers had already been taxed when those same customers earned it, and had already been subject to sales taxes, which made those corporation taxes sting just that little bit more.
The point is though, like hundred and thousands of other businesses we paid our taxes. I see no reason whatsoever that Apple and all of the other tax avoiding companies shouldn’t pay theirs too.
Thoughtful and well said. I appreciate your position.
In a nutshell, I just don’t want to fight for the fair application of something I don’t believe in. It really is shocking how the same money gets taxed over and over, as you pointed out.
As an aside, I do believe the democratic capitalism system is the best system man has invented so far, but the application/execution of its principles by the governing body has been deeply flawed over the past 50 years.