Category: Google

Companies That Have Cut Their U.S. Tax Bills the Most

According to Canada’s finance minister, the country’s corporate tax rate has dropped from 20% to 15% since the Conservative government took office in 2006. The U.S. tax rate is 35%, making the tax advantage for Burger King’s move to Canada a central part of the deal. Cutting corporate tax payments… – Continue reading

Whopper? Microsoft Skirts Billions In Taxes, Google, HP & Apple Have It Their Way Too

With all the talk about inversions and America’s Burger King Going Canadian, it’s easy to ignore even more prevalent tax savings by numerous American companies. Take Microsoft, which admits in its 2014 SEC filing that it avoids $30 billion in U.S. taxes. The trick? Keep about triple that amount, $93… – Continue reading

Microsoft has nearly $93 billion in overseas cash, and it’s reduced its tax bill by almost $30 billion

Microsoft’s stash of cash stored overseas, not subject to US taxes, is growing. In its latest regulatory filing, the software giant said it has now stockpiled $92.9 billion offshore and that this money could have cost the company $29.6 billion in taxes, but didn’t. That compares to $76.4 billion from… – Continue reading

Corporation tax: Rate cut likely as Prime Minister David Cameron set to let Northern Ireland go it alone

Northern Ireland looks set to be handed the power to slash corporation tax in a move with the potential to significantly boost our stuttering economy. In a development which could transform international investment, senior sources in London and Belfast predict that an announcement will be made no later than October… – Continue reading

Google Aust open to global tax laws

Google Australia and New Zealand managing director Maile Carnegie has urged governments across the world to address the inconsistencies of the global tax system rather than shaming individual companies for their profit-shifting activities, The Australian Financial Review reports. “I am actually incredibly empathetic to why people want to talk about this. I… – Continue reading

Multinationals escape tax due to ‘exceptional’ rules, study claims

Large subsidiaries of multinationals, such as Apple and Google, which are based in Ireland are able to escape paying corporation tax due to an “exceptional” interpretation of tax laws by the Revenue Commissioners, a new study claims. A research paper by James Stewart, associate professor in finance at Trinity College… – Continue reading

50% of H-1B visas in 2013 went to offshore companies, mostly in India

WASHINGTON, DC: As the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) opened its doors to this year’s round of H-1B visa applications, data show that about 50% of last year’s H-1B visas were granted to offshore companies, and the top two of those are based in India – Infosys and Tata… – Continue reading

HMRC Increases Amount of Tax Suspected to be Underpaid Through Transfer pricing

Adds £118m to ‘tax under consideration’ from intra-group transfers • HMRC proposes further crackdown on intra-group transfers in Budget HM Revenue & Customs has increased the amount of tax it estimates has been underpaid by the UK’s largest businesses through transfer pricing arrangements by £118 million to more than £1.1 billion, an… – Continue reading

Double taxation risk in chasing multinational companies

A call to tax technology companies such as Apple and Google in the countries where they have substantial activities has re-ignited concerns companies may be taxed twice and stop business altogether. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which is working on a global plan to prevent companies from avoiding paying… – Continue reading

‘Last chance’: ATO amnesty for offshore cash

The Tax Office is allowing Australians with money parked in offshore accounts to avoid harsh penalties by coming forward, in an amnesty program worth up to half a billion dollars. ATO Commissioner Chris Jordan will announce the program today, which will reduce the penalties for taxpayers who hand over information… – Continue reading

Multinationals face new rules on aggressive tax avoidance

OECD plan to make practice of shifting locations ineffective New rules aimed at preventing the type of aggressive tax avoidance schemes run by some of the largest multinational employers here will begin to be introduced in September, according to a draft report seen by The Irish Times . Structures that artificially shift… – Continue reading

Luxembourg Ordered to Give EU Tax-Deal Detail Amid Aid Probe (1)

European Union competition watchdogs ordered Luxembourg to hand over details of tax breaks for businesses after they said the Grand Duchy was hindering a state-aid probe spanning several EU nations. Luxembourg refused to deliver details concerning the 100 largest companies benefiting from a special program for companies whose profits stem… – Continue reading

Companies’ Offshore Profits Keep Piling Up

U.S. corporations added at least $206 billion to their stockpiles of offshore profits last year, parking earnings in low-tax countries until Congress gives them a reason not to. They have accumulated $1.95 trillion outside the U.S., up 11.8 percent from a year earlier, according to securities filings from 307 corporations…. – Continue reading

The ATO Might Be Investigating Google And Apple Right Now

Companies have every right to minimise their own tax burdens, but shrinking your footprint only lasts so long before someone gets annoyed. For Apple Australia and Google Australia, that time might be nigh as the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) reportedly gears up to investigate the pair for tax minimisation. The ABC… – Continue reading

Amazon, Apple and Google face clampdown over shielding profits made in Britain as Treasury targets global giants on tax avoidance

Global technology giants such as Apple, Google and Amazon could soon be charged a tax on their UK activities in an attempt to stop them sidestepping their responsibilities. Britain is working with nine other countries to draw up shared dossiers on the tax affairs of such groups, it was revealed… – Continue reading

Exporters ‘need transfer pricing clarity’

The benefits of the New Zealand Government’s desire to push export led growth, as part of its overall economic strategy, could be stymied by a lack of clarity over proposed cross-border tax changes. New research from the Grant Thornton International Business Report survey (IBR) reveals that New Zealand business leaders… – Continue reading

OECD urges quick action on multinational tax dodges

OECD tax director Pascal Saint-Amans has played down concerns that the United States might resist plans to make multinational companies such as Apple and Starbucks pay more tax, arguing that governments must move quickly to close multibillion-dollar loopholes or risk ordinary citizens ­losing faith in their taxation systems. Mr Saint-Amans… – Continue reading

Apple to IBM hoard $206b abroad to avoid US tax

The largest US-based companies added $206 billion to their stockpiles of offshore profits last year, parking earnings in low-tax countries until Congress gives them a reason not to. The multinational companies have accumulated $1.95 trillion outside the US, up 11.8 per cent from a year earlier, according to securities filings… – Continue reading

TAX FREE | US tech giants’ offshore cash piles earn interest from government: report

LONDON — Four of the biggest U.S. technology groups collectively hold an estimated $124 billion in U.S. Treasury debt, much of it offshore, earning them tax-free interest, the UK’s Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) said on Thursday. The finding means Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Cisco Systems Inc… – Continue reading

Taxpayers Pay $163 Billion In Interest To Apple, Cisco, Google, Microsoft In Offshore Accounts

United States taxpayers make large interest payments to the top four technology firmsfor the $163 billion in US government debt the companies own and shelter in tax-freeoffshore accounts. Apple, Cisco Systems, Google, and Microsoft legally hold $124 billion in US Treasury securities and $39 billion in US government agencydebt in accounts overseas, allowing them to avoid the 35… – Continue reading

Apple, IBM and Microsoft Lead U.S. Tax-Avoiding Spree

Apple Inc., IBM Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have been picked out as some of the main culprits of stockpiling profits abroad in order to avoid huge tax bills, according to Bloomberg. Last year, the largest U.S. firms collectively added an extra $206 billion to their offshore profit stockpiles based in low-tax countries. Together the… – Continue reading

Brazil tries to grasp online cross-border taxation

The Brazilian government has been trying to catch up on a number of areas of the digital economy, one of them being online cross-border taxation – but not without controversy. During the Mobile World Congress (MWC) last month, the Brazilian communications minister Paulo Bernardo said Brazil is a “tax haven”… – Continue reading

Australia’s Tax Office Is Targeting 86 Multinationals Over Profit-Shifting

In an attempt to stop multinationals shifting profits overseas Australia’s Tax Office is launching a task force to investigate 86 large corporations’ tax activities. The tax office is looking into companies that use complex structures to move profits through tax havens as well as those that are using thin capitalisation,… – Continue reading

G20 gives Google, Microsoft, Apple et al tax deadline

G20 finance ministers speak loudly, mention big stick The world’s top 20 finance ministers have signalled once again that they’re sick of their taxes disappearing offshore and have signalled a strong intention to get their cash back. The ministers in question are all members of the Group of Twenty (G20)… – Continue reading

Ortega’s Zara Fashions Tax Avoidance by Shifting Profits to Alps

Zara’s celebrity chic helps make its Spanish parent company, Inditex SA, the world’s biggest fashion retailer. Singer Taylor Swift, reality-television personality Kim Kardashian and Kate Middleton, Prince William’s wife, have all been spotted wearing the stylish, low-cost brand. Another reason for Inditex’s industry-best profit margins of almost 15 percent: the… – Continue reading

G-20 Agrees on Automatic Tax Data Sharing, OECD Says

Group-of-20 nations agreed to implement a global standard for automatically exchanging information between tax authorities by the end of 2015, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. The endorsement is a step toward putting an end to “banking secrecy as we know it,” Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD’s… – Continue reading

G20 to tackle transfer pricing with new tax exchange scheme

The days of multinational companies being able to use the Double Irish Dutch Sandwich to avoid taxation may soon be coming to an end, with the G20 group of nations looking to create a reporting standard to allow for automatic exchange of tax information. In the official communique coming at the end… – Continue reading

Global tax avoidance – a trillion dollar evil

In a world of widening inequality, it is perhaps the most pernicious injustice of them all. Multinational corporations and wealthy individuals avoiding tax on an unprecedented scale, shuffling assets, income and debt to the most favourable tax jurisdictions and confounding hapless authorities. It is impossible to identify exactly how much… – Continue reading

Tony Abbott must achieve ‘concrete results’ or risk losing G20 influence, says Wayne Swan

Former treasurer Wayne Swan has warned that Australia risks losing global influence unless this year’s G20 summit achieves concrete results on issues such as multinational tax avoidance. Ahead of this weekend’s meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers in Sydney, Mr Swan also urged the Abbott government not to… – Continue reading

A Solution for Corporate Tax Avoidance

Some three hundred years ago Sir Walter Scott asked, “Breathes there a man with soul so dead who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land.” Well, in America corporations are legally deemed  “persons,” so the answer to Scott’s question is “Yes,” at least when it… – Continue reading

Labor demands tax action on transfer pricing

The Federal Labor Party has demanded the Government bring Australia’s international taxation regulations into line to deal with multinationals such as Apple and Google, which are siphoning billions of dollars of revenue out of Australia while paying only small amounts of local tax. In a statement issued this morning, Shadow… – Continue reading

Labor demands tax action on transfer pricing

The Federal Labor Party has demanded the Government bring Australia’s international taxation regulations into line to deal with multinationals such as Apple and Google, which are siphoning billions of dollars of revenue out of Australia while paying only small amounts of local tax. In a statement issued this morning, Shadow… – Continue reading

Why world governments may not sign up to the plan against tax avoidance

Multinational tax avoidance in the digital economy has become a hot political topic with public reports of companies such as Google, Apple and Starbucks not paying a “fair share” of tax. The G20 group of rich economies has commissioned the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to tackle corporate profit… – Continue reading

HMRC now targeting mid-tier firms in its transfer pricing investigations, says expert

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) collected more tax from smaller businesses than large multinationals last year as a result of its investigations into firms’ transfer pricing arrangements, according to figures obtained by Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. Corporate tax expert Heather Self of Pinsent Masons said that HMRC… – Continue reading

Ireland in spotlight over multinationals

When Taoiseach Enda Kenny was grilled over Ireland’s low tax regime for multinationals on a visit to Paris last week, he fell back on a familiar defence. By now it’s a regular refrain – Ireland’s corporate taxes are crystal clear and transparent. Ours, he added, is a statute-based system which… – Continue reading

France will not tolerate tax avoidance, says Francois Hollande

France will not tolerate tax avoidance, says Francois Hollande French president Francois Hollande says that “everyone must be in the same competitive situation” French president Francois Hollande speaks during a press conference to present his 2014 policy plans at the Elysee presidential palace. Francois Hollande is making a state visit… – Continue reading

OECD delivers new global standard to target tax cheats

The OECD on Sunday delivered a new global standard to crack down on tax evasion with more than 40 countries already committing to the measures. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) chief Angel Gurria called it “a real game-changer” that would boost international cooperation to reel in cheats. “Globalisation… – Continue reading