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How Ireland Got Apple's $9 Billion Australian Profit

Posted by samzenpus on from the letter-of-the-law dept.

elphie007 writes "An investigation by The Australian Financial Review has discovered how from 2002 to 2013, Apple has shifted approximately $AU8.9 billion of revenue generated in Australia to Ireland, via Singapore. The article states that last year alone, Apple Australia paid only $AU88.5 million in tax, or 0.044% of estimated potential tax liabilities. What's more, the Australian Tax Office has agreed that this arrangement is acceptable under Australian law."

3 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. But why wouldn't they? by tcopeland · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you got $500 from writing a tech article, would you rather pay $200 of it in taxes or $2?

    Also, doesn't Apple have a duty to shareholders to cough up as little in taxes as legally possible?

    --
    The Army reading list
  2. Re:Apple / Google / etc by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm not sure that makes any sense. The article is about how this was a perfectly legitimate tax strategy. And if the world has their eye, that means Apple/Google/etc are watching everything... not the other way around.

  3. Re:Happens here in the U.S. too.. by gbjbaanb · · Score: 3, Interesting

    to be fair its a bit more complex than that, the rich do get stung for tax. In the UK you can see the proportion of taxation based on income bands. The top 50% pay 90% of the tax take, the top 5% earners pay 47.9% of the total tax.

    Its eye opening how much the wealthier pay towards society compared to the poor. Now I don't mind that so much, except that the super-wealthy tend to have far too much compared to the rest of the population, and the general disparity between income is far to great nowadays, but to criticise the wealthier half of the population because the poor think the rich should pay more is a bit uninformed and a bit selfish.

    Still, we need to get rid of these loopholes, make tax simpler, much simpler, and apply it to everyone.