 has been found to secretly move operations to Jersey in order to keep tax){kind=link}
According to an analysis of Paradise Papers documents, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been found to secretly move operations to Jersey in order to keep tax rates at their lowest.
The tech-giant is famous for paying low-levels of tax outside the US. Most of the companies subsidies are in Ireland, where it pays a significantly low level of tax.
“The debate over Apple’s taxes is not about how much we owe but where we owe it. We’ve paid over $35 billion in corporate income taxes over the past three years, plus billions of dollars more in property tax, payroll tax, sales tax and VAT,” said Apple, who often have to defend their levels of tax paid.
“We believe every company has a responsibility to pay the taxes they owe and we’re proud of the economic contributions we make to the countries and communities where we do business.”
The company’s practices have saved the company paying millions in tax, with a US Senate committee blaming the company for seeking “the holy grail of tax avoidance”.
Professor of tax law at the University of Southern California said: “US multinational firms are the global grandmasters of tax avoidance schemes that deplete not just US tax collection, but the tax collection of almost every large economy in the world.”
Apple said in a statement: “The changes we made did not reduce our tax payments in any country. In fact, our payments to Ireland increased significantly and over three years [2014, 2015 and 2016] we’ve paid $1.5bn in tax there — 7 percent of all corporate income taxes paid in that country,”
“At Apple we follow the laws, and, if the system changes, we will comply. We strongly support efforts from the global community toward comprehensive international tax reform and a far simpler system, and we will continue to advocate for that.”