January 28, 2016 at 15:59The European Commission is putting things in order with tax legislation: Apple and Google will bring to the forefront
Scottish MP, representative of the Scottish National Party, Stuart Hosie, complained to the European Commission of poor "tax behavior" Google . Earlier, the European Commissioner for Competition Margret Westaguer said that the European Commission is ready to conduct a tax audit of the corporation, if a corresponding complaint is received.
“If we find something that will cause us concern, if someone writes to us that maybe something is wrong there, then we will check,” Westager said in an interview with the BBC.
On Wednesday in Paris, the governments of 31 countries signed an agreement aimed at increasing the transparency of corporate taxes in Europe. Westager hopes this will put an end to the practice of corporations using different tax zones to evade taxes.
“I hope that in the end we will find ourselves in a situation where companies will pay taxes in those countries where they earn money,” the European Commissioner said.
Westager also mentioned Google ’s recent decision to pay £ 130 million ($ 185 million) in tax compensation to the British authorities. She refused to evaluate the deal, according to which, according to the British opposition, the government received only 3% of the taxes.
Using a simple scheme, Google in Ireland received double savings in corporate taxes. And this company is far from the only one - since 2008, when Ireland carried out reforms in response to the aggravating economic crisis in the country, its corporate income rate attracted all the giants, from Apple , Facebook , Blizzard , Amazon and Microsoft, to transnational giants in traditional industries.
Today it became known that the Italian authorities demanded payment of compensation from Google. They estimate the damage at $ 218 million. In addition, France “hunts” Google . Presumably she will require to pay twice as much as the UK.
According to journalists, as a result of an investigation by the European Commission regarding Apple's tax policy, the company could be fined more than $ 8 billion. In particular, the European Commission found that the corporation used subsidiaries registered in Ireland in order to avoid paying taxes on income generated outside the United States.
By conspiracy, Apple in Ireland calculates profits and taxes using more profitable accounting methods, thereby reducing taxes to the Irish treasury. Although Apple generates about 55% of its revenue outside the United States, its external tax rate is about 1.8%.
The decision on this case can be made already in March of this year.
More than a year ago, a scandal dubbed Luxleaks - about Luxembourgish leaks of information. The European Commission conducted an investigation and identified cases of preferential tax transactions between large corporations and state authorities. Companies Fiat and of Starbucks , was asked to pay millions of euros in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries.
Today, the European Commission is due to submit proposals on resolving problems with tax fraud and tax evasion.
“If we find something that will cause us concern, if someone writes to us that maybe something is wrong there, then we will check,” Westager said in an interview with the BBC.
On Wednesday in Paris, the governments of 31 countries signed an agreement aimed at increasing the transparency of corporate taxes in Europe. Westager hopes this will put an end to the practice of corporations using different tax zones to evade taxes.
“I hope that in the end we will find ourselves in a situation where companies will pay taxes in those countries where they earn money,” the European Commissioner said.
Westager also mentioned Google ’s recent decision to pay £ 130 million ($ 185 million) in tax compensation to the British authorities. She refused to evaluate the deal, according to which, according to the British opposition, the government received only 3% of the taxes.
Using a simple scheme, Google in Ireland received double savings in corporate taxes. And this company is far from the only one - since 2008, when Ireland carried out reforms in response to the aggravating economic crisis in the country, its corporate income rate attracted all the giants, from Apple , Facebook , Blizzard , Amazon and Microsoft, to transnational giants in traditional industries.
Today it became known that the Italian authorities demanded payment of compensation from Google. They estimate the damage at $ 218 million. In addition, France “hunts” Google . Presumably she will require to pay twice as much as the UK.
According to journalists, as a result of an investigation by the European Commission regarding Apple's tax policy, the company could be fined more than $ 8 billion. In particular, the European Commission found that the corporation used subsidiaries registered in Ireland in order to avoid paying taxes on income generated outside the United States.
By conspiracy, Apple in Ireland calculates profits and taxes using more profitable accounting methods, thereby reducing taxes to the Irish treasury. Although Apple generates about 55% of its revenue outside the United States, its external tax rate is about 1.8%.
The decision on this case can be made already in March of this year.
More than a year ago, a scandal dubbed Luxleaks - about Luxembourgish leaks of information. The European Commission conducted an investigation and identified cases of preferential tax transactions between large corporations and state authorities. Companies Fiat and of Starbucks , was asked to pay millions of euros in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries.
Today, the European Commission is due to submit proposals on resolving problems with tax fraud and tax evasion.