Apple, Amazon, Google Accused of Avoiding Taxes in the UK
10th April 2012
My, how unusual — a corporation taking advantage of a low-tax jurisdiction in order to avoid paying money to a high-tax jurisdiction. That’s certainly headline news.
Apple was targeted in a new report by the Daily Mail, which noted that the company has a major operation based out of Ireland to take advantage of its low tax rate. The tax rate in Cork is just 12.5 percent, or about half the 24 percent corporate rate in the U.K.
In other words, what they did was perfectly legal. (Hey, U.K. — if your taxes weren’t so high, people wouldn’t be trying so hard to avoid them. Take the hint, already.)
The attention on Apple’s taxes comes as rival Amazon is under investigation from the U.K.’s HM Revenue & Customs after it was discovered that the online retailer did not pay any British corporation tax in 2010 or 2011. Amazon was able to avoid taxes after switching its European headquarters to Luxembourg.
In other words, what they did was perfectly legal. I’m not seeing any news here — a lot of whining, but no news.