Apple dodged all UK corporation tax in 2012

[4me2]

Apple dodged all UK corporation tax in 2012


Apple didn't pay any corporation tax in the UK last year, according to its latest filings in the country, adding to controversy at home about its imaginative tax planning.
The fruity firm's main British subsidiaries Apple (UK), Apple Europe and Apple Retail UK reported pre-tax profits between them of £68m in the year to September 2012 and made tax deductions related to share schemes alone of £27.7m, more than wiping out its liabilities. The firm paid £11.4m in corporate tax in 2011, on £60.4m operating profit.


The iDevice-pusher is already in trouble in the US, where a Senate committee said that it had "created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars while claiming to be tax resident nowhere". The committee added that the firm seemed to have an effective overseas tax rate of less than two per cent from shifting profits around.
Senators accused Apple of avoiding $10bn of US tax every year by holding the intellectual property rights for its products in Ireland. In 2011, 84 per cent of the firm's non-American operating income was pushed through Apple Sales International, a division that turns out not to be tax resident anywhere.
Apple joins fellow internet firms Amazon and Google among the unfortunate poster-companies of corporations refusing to pay their "fair share" while regular folks suffer under the weight of grimmer and grimmer austerity measures.
In Blighty, the Public Accounts Committee has called on the government to revamp tax rules to close the loopholes that allow for "highly contrived" tax arrangements.
Apple had not returned a request for comment at the time of publication. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07...o_uk_corp_tax/

[BertRoot]

Fucks sake. Cheeky bastards have got half the country hooked on their products to hear this. Weapons grade flanges but good on us for letting them get away with it all these years.

[evilsatan]

Turns out no one is too greedy then, I doubt they will get in too much trouble, when they wanted to expand they threatened to leave curpentino if not granted permission. Ridiculous given the cash reserves they have.

[tombott]

Ahh another reason to add to my 'Why I hate Apple' list.

[EvilBoB]

It seems a lot of big companies are not paying corporation tax at the moment. I guess it's because they have so much power in various countries at political levels that this is not being stomped on big time. Wonder how much money Apple or Google put into various political parties.... And then of course those parties become reliant on this money meaning they will never go against the companies.

Of course, ultimately it will be the consumers who suffer. If these companies are forced to pay these taxes then the products they produce will no doubt also go up in price. But on the flip side of that by not paying corporation tax they are also doing the country (And the consumers) out of pocket. It's a catch 22 situation.

These are only really coming to light now because countries are trying to claw money from every corner to stay out of recession. Bet there have been many more companies historically that have been doing these tricks for years.

[Bald Bouncer]

Of course, ultimately it will be the consumers who suffer. If these companies are forced to pay these taxes then the products they produce will no doubt also go up in price. But on the flip side of that by not paying corporation tax they are also doing the country (And the consumers) out of pocket. It's a catch 22 situation.

I don't see this as a catch 22 as I don't buy the increased price argument as with most goods the end price reflects more what people will pay rather than costs and profits, no matter what people say like 'fair play to them' and 'why not if they can get away with it' etc the cold reality is if this continues the country collapses as every country relies on big business paying taxes.

You also get a lot of misguidance on the movement of money and finger pointing at things that actually help to drive the economy rather than adversely affect it, if you could actually see the flow of money you would see the point. Try replacing money with a physical item lets say a cup off the top of my head, people on low pay get more cups to make up the low cups they receive, unemployed get cups basically everything is paid in cups, these cups are used in exchange for goods and services within society and move within that society the problem only comes when these cups leave the country and cease to circulate.

Now transfer that analogy to money and see why when you have the NHS being tendered out to private firms based abroad who pay no tax here, big companies like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft the list goes on of companies who are draining money from the country, British firms can't compete they pay far more so more and more companies from abroad take the trade paying no tax and if a british company does manage to succeed they then use the same system as the other companies and shift profits and tax paying abroad.

If this is not addressed and there are many ways to do it but the people in power all have vested interests in not stopping it then the poverty will continue to rise, the public services will cease to exist and we will end up as the Asia of europe, forget about what Fred Blogs gets in benefit while he is working on the side or Dick Smith is getting in sickness benefit while he is working on the side this is a smoke screen and until people really wake up to what is going on and the complicity of the media and our elected and paid for representatives we are doomed.

[tombott]

I don't see this as a catch 22 as I don't buy the increased price argument as with most goods the end price reflects more what people will pay rather than costs and profits, no matter what people say like 'fair play to them' and 'why not if they can get away with it' etc the cold reality is if this continues the country collapses as every country relies on big business paying taxes.

You also get a lot of misguidance on the movement of money and finger pointing at things that actually help to drive the economy rather than adversely affect it, if you could actually see the flow of money you would see the point. Try replacing money with a physical item lets say a cup off the top of my head, people on low pay get more cups to make up the low cups they receive, unemployed get cups basically everything is paid in cups, these cups are used in exchange for goods and services within society and move within that society the problem only comes when these cups leave the country and cease to circulate.

Now transfer that analogy to money and see why when you have the NHS being tendered out to private firms based abroad who pay no tax here, big companies like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft the list goes on of companies who are draining money from the country, British firms can't compete they pay far more so more and more companies from abroad take the trade paying no tax and if a british company does manage to succeed they then use the same system as the other companies and shift profits and tax paying abroad.

If this is not addressed and there are many ways to do it but the people in power all have vested interests in not stopping it then the poverty will continue to rise, the public services will cease to exist and we will end up as the Asia of europe, forget about what Fred Blogs gets in benefit while he is working on the side or Dick Smith is getting in sickness benefit while he is working on the side this is a smoke screen and until people really wake up to what is going on and the complicity of the media and our elected and paid for representatives we are doomed.

Spot on Bald Bouncer.
What makes me sick is when politicians bleat on about how if we tax these companies too much they will leave the UK, and that we will suffer because of it.
No we wouldn't. If the likes of Amazon, Starbucks and Apple were banned from operating within the UK then UK business and economy would improve in my opinion. What companies like Apple do is block competition and innovation. Apple are the richest company in the world, they are worth over $600 Billion.
Just think, some of that comes from not paying taxes in the UK. So everytime you buy an Apple product, in effect you are lining the pockets of the share holders, but harming our already fucked economy.
I'm done with listening to people moaning about the state of our economy when I know they buy coffee in Starbucks, have an Apple device and use Amazon. Grow some fucking back bone and boycott these parasites.

[EvilBoB]

People will always want to buy the latest iDevice etc. because they are desirable items for so many. If they forced Apple to stop trading in the UK people would just find other ways to buy them - for higher prices much like we see on a lot of HK stuff now. Where would the money end up then? Companies will still get their sales and people in other territories will be making mucho-profit.

I agree wholeheartedly though - something needs to be done. These companies made lots of money in the late 90's/start of the new millenium and are now abusing the power they have acquired by screwing over the very countries that no doubt gave them tax incentives in the first place!!

Look at Amazon - not content with undercutting everyone because of their size they are now starting to offer same day delivery in some parts of the UK! How can ANY legitimate high street shop compete with that? So people start ordering from Amazon and your smaller shops will go under because people stop buying from them. And so their profits go up but no money is put back into the very countries they are destroying. :-\

I know they buy coffee in Starbucks

More fool them. Starbucks is fucking disgusting haha

[tombott]

People will always want to buy the latest iDevice etc. because they are desirable items for so many. If they forced Apple to stop trading in the UK people would just find other ways to buy them - for higher prices much like we see on a lot of HK stuff now. Where would the money end up then? Companies will still get their sales and people in other territories will be making mucho-profit.

I agree wholeheartedly though - something needs to be done. These companies made lots of money in the late 90's/start of the new millenium and are now abusing the power they have acquired by screwing over the very countries that no doubt gave them tax incentives in the first place!!

Look at Amazon - not content with undercutting everyone because of their size they are now starting to offer same day delivery in some parts of the UK! How can ANY legitimate high street shop compete with that? So people start ordering from Amazon and your smaller shops will go under because people stop buying from them. And so their profits go up but no money is put back into the very countries they are destroying. :-\


More fool them. Starbucks is fucking disgusting haha

I'm not sure how many people would be willing to pay over the odds for tech from overseas, I know there always will be some but most folk just get whats on offer from their provider.

Let's not forget that any items Amazon send via Royal Mail are subsidised by us.

[Bald Bouncer]

I'm done with listening to people moaning about the state of our economy when I know they buy coffee in Starbucks, have an Apple device and use Amazon. Grow some fucking back bone and boycott these parasites.

As much as I would like to see this happen it just won't that's why it has to be done by the people elected to look after our economy not to milk it for every penny shifting public money into private non tax paying companies pockets. I don't know if anyone else has seen it but in America they set up a Gas station with something like Saddam Hussein's fuel at something like 5c a gallon cheaper and the cue was round the block and when they interviewed a few all they could say was yeah but it's cheaper and the drones in this country are the same.