Tax Dodgers Database
Naming and shaming corporate tax dodgers
Estimated Dodge: £550 million
Apple is one of the biggest and most loved tech companies in the world and are the masterminds behind such iconic products as the iPod, Macbook and iPhone. Despite Apple's huge revenues, it is estimated that they only paid 1.2% tax on their profits outside of the United States in 2011. In the UK, corporation tax currently stands at 20%. In Europe, they cut their tax bill by using a technique known as the 'Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich'.
Apple
What the customers think
How they dodge
Apple have set up a complex network of subsidiary companies in various tax jurisdictions to enable them to shift profits away from countries (such as the UK) that charge a comparatively high rate of corporation tax. According to The Daily Mail, the 'Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich' scheme they operate involves moving UK profits to their Irish subsidiaries 'Apple Operations International' and 'Apple Sales International', before sending them on to a Dutch company and then finally off to tax havens in the Caribbean.
Apple actually invented this tax avoidance scheme back in the late 1980's. It has since been adopted by hundreds of multinationals seeking to limit their tax bills, allowing us the poetic license to use the phrase 'one bad apple spoils the bunch...'
It doesn't end there either. Apple have set up a subsidiary company called iTunes S.à r.l. in the tax haven of Luxembourg. Despite being home to just a few dozen Apple workers, this little Luxembourg base handles 20% of iTunes' sales worldwide. It's beyond doubt that 20% of iTunes sales do not actually originate from Luxembourg, a tiny country with a population of around 500,000.