Apple Avoids Paying Billions of Taxes According to the US Senators

Apple, a known manufacturer of some of the innovative and most advanced technologies, was accused by the senators of the United States for avoiding paying for their taxes by using some Irish subsidiaries, which are not considered as tax residents of several countries across the globe.

During a hearing with Apple, the senators who have done some investigations have released a report about the international tax structure of Apple. But, this issue about Apple became a political spotlight in the US because of the senators involved. According to Sen. Levin, the chairman of the panel, Apple has avoided paying taxes. The company also created an offshore entity that hold billions of dollars. The report showed during the hearing also elaborate the loopholes that were made by Apple just to avoid paying taxes in the past 4 years. But, the committee stated that Apple has made something illegal to reduce their tax bills.

There are several things covered in the report, but most of the staffs in the committee are surprised when Apple use a non-tax subsidiary in the country of Ireland. These subsidiaries include Apple Sales International and Apple Operations International. Both subsidiaries don’t pay for taxes. That is the reason why senators of the United States accused Apple that it is avoiding in paying billions of taxes, which government may benefit from. Other than the mystery behind the Ireland-based subsidiaries of Apple, investigators concluded that it is one of Apple’s tax gimmicks to reduce their taxes. Although this is a legal move, Apple has denied that it is kind of gimmick just to avoid taxes

Google to face UK parliament a second time on allegations of tax avoidance

Introduction: A second committee grilling on avoidance of taxes is set for Google’s Senior Executives.

Summoning senior executives of Google to face Members of Parliament once again, the Committee on Public Accounts in the UK is set to grill anew the large multinational company on allegations that it had purposely avoided paying taxes to the UK government. Back in November last year, Google Vice-President for Northern Europe Matt Brittin had appeared before the same committee to testify that his company’s sales teams were all situated in Ireland, leaving the company’s UK staff to only perform marketing of Google as  an advertising extension. This variation in structure ultimately enabled the company to avoid taxes by paying only £6 million of taxes to the UK government on £2.6 billion it had gotten as profits in 2011. News agency Reuters however, performed investigation that found how Google’s UK-based staff have actually promoted and closed sales of the multinational firm’s advertising space to its clients. The news agency facilitated its investigations through interviews done on several Google customers, aside from working with former Google employees and checking out various job postings and data on the firm’s LinkedIn site. By virtue of the company’s having negotiated and concluded deals in London, the argument that its sales teams were all based in Ireland was indefensible and only constituted avoidance of taxes, since it was clear from invoice addresses that all the people involved are located in the UK. These allegations of avoidance of taxes are serious enough to warrant a second grilling by the MPs and greater depth of investigations into account balances, names and addresses with tax authorities in British overseas territories.

Conclusion: With exhaustive investigation into allegations of avoidance of taxes, a more complicated web of involvement may yet be uncovered.