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THE GOVERNMENT HAS just launched the first phase of its National Digital Strategy, with its main aims to get more businesses and more people online over the next two years.
The report, commissioned by Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte, threw up some surprising statistics about Ireland and its relationship with the Internet.
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I wonder how many financial services companies set up in London pay their fair share
Precious few.
London is just about the number one tax haven in the world, with daily traffic to offshore accounts
Sure there are no financial services firms set up in London. I can see why you might think there are, what with thousands of such forms hiring thousands of people in London, and all their operations existing in London, but in fact they’re all set up in Cayman, Bermuda and Jersey. But that’s completely different to Double Irish avoidance of course, completely different.
Where is our loophole ?.
Boom, spot on John. The city I live in is a complete tax haven, and the oligarch’s are buying up half of the city now. But sher look, Cammie is obviously bricking it over UKIP at the moment…he needs to out shout Farage and keep the heat off him.
The mans an idiot, can’t even hang on to his own MP’s as they jump ship for UKIP.
Exactly.
I wish Europe and the UK would keep their noses out of our tax affairs.
You can add The United States to that.
Oh, and the other members of the OECD.
David versus Goliath doesn’t even start to cover it.
So if Irish companies where using the UK or another country to avoid paying tax in Ireland then you wouldn’t have a problem with it .
Hardly paying any taxes at all is ridiculous especially while the average person is being rode. Get them all to pay the 12.5% itll still be the lowest in the EU.
Cameron thinks he can bully us like he bullied Scotland…obviously he’s extremely ignorant of Irish history.
@Tommy Whelan – many of the bad developer debts left to the Irish Taxpayer to pay back were ultimately owed by IOM registered holding companies or trusts (this is something they don’t tell you). So many of the top developers were at it – Britain got the benefits and WE (the taxpayer) are covering the debts.
We need to tell Cameron that it swings both ways.
Picasso I speak on behalf of a the adverage guy on the street . It’s call greed when big companies that make enormous profits from people and then exploit a loophole in another country to make more profits while avoiding paying tax s back into that country . There are many companies in the UK that are struggling but pay there fair share of taxes while companies like Apple that make billions in profits and pay very little back into the system .
Tommy – couldn’t agree more, and many ordinary Irish companies doing the same.
.
The problem is two fold – we will never get global agreement on tax loopholes as almost every country in the world is looking for an advantage and with the entire world to choose where multinationals can provide employment many of the multinationals are in a very strong position.
I’ve always wondered why Apple with its ability to sell vast quantities of its product at a premium rate and making massive profits – why doesn’t Apple don the ‘stars and stripes jersey’ and manufacture its products in the USA? But that’s another argument.
The name of the game for Ireland at the moment is to find a way to keep everyone happy – and it will be a very fine line.
Picasso I agree with you but it doesn’t change the fact that these massive corporations seen to get away with operating while not contributing anything to the Irish Exchequer. It’s us who are losing out.
Contributing nothing expect the jobs they bring here you mean
TD’s in smiling, obsequious compliance (not ours) and angling for cushy job in EU as they jump sinking ship, they see what is coming……
Think he’s confused bless him. It was Scotland you just about hung on to the other week, we’re long gone, and therefore don’t have our tax policies dictated to us by Westminster.
No, only Brussels.
And we care what David Cameron thinks?
We do indeed, he seams to be listened to more than Danny Dyer
Speak for yourself
Let’s see, Jersey, Isle of Man, Cayman Islands. Can anyone else think of other UK off-shore territories whose economies are basically structured to avoid tax and hide away dodgy money. Mr Cameron’s views on those?
Us Bermuda a British protectorate?
Isle of man. jersey or caymans or not part of the UK.. the Isle of Man is part of Great Britain though and is not part of the European Union… that said i take your point. Cameron should be told he can suck our collective balls.
British virgin islands?
if a politician is unhappy , that makes me happy
David, we voted for independence a long time ago so butt out. Have you not enough problems of your own to be looking after?
We voted? When?
We fought for independence.
It doesn’t feel like freedom these days though.
Thank god we didn’t vote. Would probably still be in the UK if that was the case.
F*ck off Cameroon, its none of your business what happens here. Sure didn’t the unionists stonewall SF’ proposal to lower corporation tax a move that would have brought investment to Ulster, instead Westminster keeps the place dependant on handouts, monies designed to scare any moderates in Ireland off seeking a United Ireland. It is Westminster state sponsored terrorism that is the scourge of Ulster not the Irish tax system.
Ireland did vote on it in a general election where Irish candidates for the British parliament won on a ticket of setting up their own Irish parliament in Dublin. It was Britain’s refusal to recognise that parliament that resulted in the war if independence.
The 1916 referendum.
Since the Brits did their best to avoid the democratic will of the Irish people, the 1918 election was a clear consensus for independence. People know they were voting for a party that was going to boycott Westminster and set up a government in Ireland for irish affairs. I’m no shinner, these are just historical facts.
It was 1918 Patrick
David knows that our lower rate of tax attracts multinationals south of the border instead of north. Tough titty David.
Last time I checked Ireland was not part of the UK.
No it’s not part of the UK but it is part of the EU .
Get over it David! Lots of messes to be sorted out in your own territory so get used to being a little island like we are and knuckle down and learn from our example.
I wish they would crack down on France too, and other countries with high headline rates and low actual rates. Corporations should pay taxes, fair taxes, but it should be recourse by the EU should not be boundary free.
Exactly Jason . .well said.
Excellent point.
Out of all the many politicians, both domestic and abroad. Of all the insufferable, smug, useless, condescending, idiotic, tw*ts that they all are, I dislike none more than David Cameron. The dough-faced robotic ar*ehole.
And John Bruton argues we would have been better off under home rule!
Are the brits trying to tell us what we can and cannot do again?.
Tell them to get their own house in order f….ing ass holes
You seem to be unable to read.
The EU commission is investigating Fiat in Luxembourg and Apple in Ireland for illegal tax deals. The outline of the Apple judgement leaked and it seems they believe that Ireland has offered illegal tax deals under EU laws on state aid. David Cameron when asked in his interview said a very reasonable thing in that 12.5 % is a low tax rate but that’s Irelands prerogative but that not paying the tax which should be due is wrong.
What Ireland has been doing is terrible. Low tax rates are fine, I think corporate tax could be a few percent higher but it’s fine. But working out complex tax deals for global multinationals makes the playing field unfair. How is the small innovative company supposed to compete with the multinational when the multinational can afford to pay 1/6th the tax rate.
Capitalism is great but it relies on a level playing field. Tilting the field for a few chosen companies is wrong, we should be ashamed of ourselves. The Irish entrepreneur in digital hub trying to start the next Apple, is paying taxes so Apple can have tax break.
In response we should just lower it further by 50 %
That’ll bring it down to 1.25%.
It would help a lot – most of all the Irish people – if the government taxed companies at 12.5% and not 2.5%.
Apple paid about $715 million in corporation tax on foreign profits of $37 billion in fiscal 2012.
That is a meagre 1.9% in tax – more than 10% below the effective rate which Irish governments claim.
What multi-nationals do not pay in tax, we do. The joke is on us.
And the 4000 odd apple employees then pay the highest income tax in EU. Add USC LPT VRT WATER CHARGES Etc. Well ridden Irish and our government still bending us over to take more.
And we are not happy having to take the over spill of immigrants that he does`nt want because of his incompetent immigration system,and open borders with no border control in Northern Ireland
As an island nation on the outskirts of Europe or needs are different and a common tax system can not and should not be attempted.
E.g the only way for us to get Irish products to other countries is by air or sea. All other countries can do this by road. A tax on sea or air transit would only really affect us.
No one gets to talk smack about our dodgy tax system except us!
himself and the yanks should be more concerned with cleaning up the dogs dinner both their countries made of the middle east. stick to oil lads and leave the fiddling with tax laws to us :D
I can see this getting very messy.
If some kind of tax harmonisation does happen or more than likely we are forced to change our tax laws, well I can see a lot of big companies leaving.
I’m open to correction but didn’t his family get all there money by hiding profits offshore in Belize?
If so hypocrisy knows no bounds
The low corporate tax scheme has served Ireland well. Yes we speak English and we are broadly US friendly and our education system is ok and we are generally hard working etc but the only reason why so many US corporations have operations here is because of the LOW TAX rate. To use a US idiom …”it’s the low tax rate stupid”. But it is being abused and its getting too much attention.
The government here need to be constantly innovative and flexible looking at new ways to bring in investment. The Uk, France and even the Us and others are starting to get pissed off at us. The best strategy is make some concessions but introduce some new innovations elsewhere.
Its looking likely the Uk will pull out of the Eu….what opportunities will that throw up for Ireland? The Eu needs a financial centre, close to Us, close to Uk , close to Europe etc. London is hardly the best choice with Uk on its own. Imagine Dublin the new financial services centre of Europe. Now that would really piss off Cameron and his Etonian friends….
No, it wouldnt. We would need complex agreements with our own playground off shore territories such as Isle of Man and Guernsey and Jersey. Since we dont have these little tax havens setup our selves its a non runner. Cameron is a joke. London is a joke they are all at it and this is just optics for deflection away from their own problems.
The bottom line is that the low corporation tax and the various deals struck with the US multinationals saved this country when the Eu, Merkel and all turned their backs on us even blackmailing us over the bond holders. So lets not talk any nonsense of morality. Cameron would screw us at the first opportunity just as others did over the housing collapse largely caused by Eu banks and power brokers.
As regards the local digital innovators. Show me one that comes close to matching the employment of Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Facebook etc. The bottom line is that the US is the crucible for innovation in this Digital era and we are lucky to get the crumbs. These multinationals create scores of opportunities for small indigenous companies that have every opportunity to grow and avail of good tax regimes.
Lets not try and pretend. We are just a Mickey mouse player here. With the likes of Berty and Enda and the like at the helm realistically what chance have we got?
We have a choice. Create some good employment at home which keeps this country afloat by doing deals and attracting multinationals OR be the Eu bitch to Cameron , Merkel and the like and send our sons and daughters to London, New York, Sydney, etc to work on the buildings. Look at the Swiss and see how shrewd they were over the years doing deals here and there as required for survival.
Even here on the journal is there any hope that we will ever learn?
Anyone else love if we cut it to 11.5 or 12% to piss Europe and the UK off.
Britain has granted special tax status to companies and individuals based in Channel Islands and Isle of Man as part of its National Taxation strategy.
Ireland’s; a corporation tax rate of 12.5%.
But our rate needs to be rigidly and consistently applied, with those multi national corporations based here, and not diluted by so called double Irish sandwich routine.
Like him or not, he’s right and it’s us that lose money too from it. It’s a very cheap way of generating jobs, and probably not long term jobs at that.
How long have apple been in Ireland?
Granny Smiths apples?? What kind of Apple
32 years
Cameron can go and shite
David Cameron is a puppet. He cannot even form a sentence on his own.
Another reason why we need to get this EU jacket off, give it to Ukraine now there is a country that wants to join the EU.
You mind your own game David!!
He’s 100% correct, we as Irish people living here would be better off if the multi nationals paid their fair share. We as the Irish citizens are carrying them.
Exactly. I think some of the patriots here are missing this perspective. It’s us who are being screwed.
He’s just jelly he didn’t think of it first.
I could not care less what this over indulged toff cares. … sort your own unequal country out first. . The land of oligarchs, criminal bankers and the descendants of imperialists living of stolen capital versus the land of wonga, the pound shop and nasty estates populated by feral kids and disenfranchised ethnics. . Not happy with us indeed
Didnt his family make their money doing the exact same thing…….
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/apr/20/cameron-family-tax-havens
pot….. kettle anyone ????
He was pretty happy with us when we agreed to bail out the banking system of Europe to stop contagion.
What about Starbucks in the UK Mr. Cameron?
David Cameron was born into absolute privilege and is just a puppet for big corporations in London . he couldn’t give a flying f**k about the normal working people in England. wealth is so unevenly distributed through out the world it’s really depressing when you think about it. would do say anyone in Liverpool,Hull,Sunderland,Manchester, Newcastle any of the major Northern cities actually voted for him . took 800 years of bloody warfare to achieve sovereignty from our oppressors who are only concerned for the wealthy parts of London city . thank god westminster don’t have influence over Irish affairs. Our lot are bad don’t get me wrong but nothing compared to the elitist tory party
Not happy? Or jealous he didn’t think of it first?
What about Jersey, Guernsey & the Isle of Man. All tax havens because they are technically outside the EU. Double Irish/Double standards.
Cameron has a point though the EU commission is investigating Fiat in Luxembourg and Apple in Ireland for illegal tax deals. The outline of the Apple judgement leaked and it seems they believe that Ireland has offered illegal tax deals under EU laws on state aid. David Cameron when asked in his interview said a very reasonable thing in that 12.5 % is a low tax rate but that’s Ireland’s prerogative but that not paying the tax which should be due is wrong.
What Ireland has been doing is terrible. Low tax rates are fine, I think corporate tax could be a few percent higher but it’s fine. But working out complex tax deals for global multinationals makes the playing field unfair. How is the small innovative company supposed to compete with the multinational when the multinational can afford to pay 1/6th the tax rate.
Capitalism is great but it relies on a level playing field. Tilting the field for a few chosen companies is wrong, we should be ashamed of ourselves. The Irish entrepreneur in digital hub trying to start the next Apple, is paying taxes so Apple can have tax break.
David Burke, your last sentence. In a nutshell.
There is no level playing field in the EU David so get that crap out of your head. And saying that we should be ashamed of ourselves is utterly ridiculous. We are up against the UK Germany France and many other EU former colonist powers that are all at the same scheme. They all have closed door systems and off shore cosy deals with their own former colony territories. So please save the self loathing for people who think you have a point.
If you are going to level the playing field you are assuming we can synchronise the globe on this subject.
As that is not achievable I will treat your speech as no more than idealist nonsense.
Facts are facts, we are up against the big boys for investment and they are having domestic trouble at home So all of a sudden Ireland are a problem.
“many other EU former colonist powers”
Really, I thought you were going to talk facts and not emotion. But there are no facts in your idiotic rant.
There is no level playing field in Ireland was my point but you seem too thick to understand. We are favouring US multinationals over indigenous companies. It’s sorta crony capitalism though not the brown envelope kind. It’s the kind the favours large companies over small ones and stops the process of creative destruction.
I’ll try and make it simpler so you understand. It’s 2000 and everyone in the world decides that Microsoft is wonderful shouldn’t have to pay any taxes but they will recoup the taxes from other technology companies. Apple which is struggling at the time shuts down it’s research labs to deal with the increased competition and taxes. Apple limps on but is eventually broken up and sold. We all miss out because of it.
James Comerford,
Aren’t you missing his point though? No one’s arguing about the hypocrisy and dodgy motives of Cameron and the other toads in Europe’s financial system. Yes we are up against the big boys which is why we have fought to keep the 12% corporate tax rate; why other commentators here are right to ask why we’re not looking at France for example; why every nation acting purely in their own interests makes it an unequal dog eat dog playground.
But it doesn’t change the fact that these multi nationals are paying negligible tax into the Irish system while those who are trying to set up business here still have to pay regular taxes because there are no ‘loopholes’ for them. It’s great that our country is the European headquarters to so many major corporations but in reality, what is the net benefit to the Irish citizen overall? Does the balance really tip in our favour? You don’t have to be an idealist to question the long term benefits of favouring foreign corporations over the potential to build a greater indigenous industrial base here.
Not to mention the fact that it’s completely morally wrong but something tells me you’re not going to buy that line of argument.
Fk off Cameron
Cameron should be told to fuc? OFF but kenny won’t do that he is too much of a lick.
We’re not happy with his face. Git.
Davey boy should remember the old fable of the pot and the kettle…
Go on Dave make us a promise like you did the Scots…lying Imperialist up to your elbows in financial irregularities. For example
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2108329/David-Cameron-orders-inquiry-work-tsar-Emma-Harrison-appointed-Government-adviser.html
or
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9591996/David-Cameron-drawn-into-West-Coast-Main-Line-row.html
Get Andy Coulson to spin you a tale.
I think Cameron has more issues of his own to worry about than the Irish tax regime, he’ll be getting a visit from the men in grey suits fairly soon…
Big bullies England and America picking on little Ireland why don’t yous pis, off
How mature of you.
And we are not happy with Tory pr#cks
These companies have no loyalty to us, they pay a rate of tax that may be lower, but they employ thousands of people in their offices here, if the rate of tax was increased to a high rate, then they would just decide to up sticks and go off to another country which would give them a dirt cheap tax rate, and we would be left with thousands on the breadline which would be costing us more than the tax we receive off them!! So uk and europe should pull their noses out of this and leave it as it is!!!
And yet Torie party Donors, Peers and Lords live in tax heavens.
We have been screwed by so many of our so called friends. So my message to everyone that questions our tax laws is ” go fuk yourselves’
Cue the war on “CORPORATION TAX”
David Cameron can jog the f*ck on
I care. Seeing as Britain is Ireland’s biggest trading partner and all…
Oh FFS! That was meant to be a reply to an earlier comment. Forgot to remind myself not to comment on the Journal on the phone.
The taxes need to be taken when the corporations pay dividends. Capital gains need to be taxed as income not at a special, privileged rate. You can never keep up with corporations and their games but income at those levels is pretty efficiently taxed. People think ” tax the companies not us” but 90% of dividends and capital gains taxes will come from the people who have rode the world down these past 30 years. This is the only road back to building middle classes. Little countries, under the present system, can always be expected to be corrupted into contributing to the burden on working people.
Their just piste off because they didn’t think of it first! The so called government here better not roll over on this like the european lapdogs they are because that will be 10,000 ish people back on the live register as all the multinational companies will pull out of here. Pull out would create a knock on effect in nearly every industry!
Funny how a lot of the commentators here defending Ireland’s right to attract companies here using low tax loopholes are the same people who last week where lambasting U2 moving their tax affairs to Holland.
I deplore anyone using tax avoidance in whatever country or of any nationality.
The poorer sections of communities should not be sitting in libraries to warm up or attending soup kitchens. Modern Ireland? Could not even provide wi-fi for international conference. We will not get many at this rate.
If Cameron had his way England would still rule ireland
Can we get passed silly juvenile comments, PLEASE.
Might want to proof read the article there Journal. Some of the grammar is appalling.
Sure Amazon raped the UK tax system! They only paid a few million tax last year!
“They wan’t our jobs and they want our investment”
Would they settle for taking our government?
They took our jobs!
Advertisement
Big business ‘shirks’ fair share of tax load
September 29, 2014
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By HEATH ASTON, GEORGIA WILKINS
Almost a third of Australia’s largest companies are paying less than 10¢ in the dollar in corporate tax, a report that exposes a gaping hole in government revenues over the past decade shows.
As Australia prepares to host world leaders at the G20 summit in Brisbane in November, where a global assault on tax avoidance will be discussed, the report found 84 per cent of Australia’s top 200 stockmarket-listed companies pay less than the 30 per cent company tax rate.
Some, among them household names such as James Hardie, do not contribute a dollar to Australian coffers, it found.
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Tax minimisation by large companies far outweighs that of small- and medium-sized businesses and has a disproportionately large effect on eroding the tax base.
”Tackling corporate tax avoidance is an urgent priority; Australia does not have a spending problem, it has a revenue problem and it must be fixed,” says Who Pays for Our Common Wealth?, prepared by the union United Voice and the Tax Justice Network – a group of charities, unions and churches.
The 90-page look at tax contributions of the S&P/ASX 200 between 2004 and last year claims up to $80 billion in tax was forgone in that period. That could all but wipe out the past two budget deficits.
It details the widespread and growing use of subsidiaries in tax havens and so-called ”thin capitalisation”, where local entities are saddled with huge debts to reduce tax liabilities in Australia.
Almost 60 per cent of the ASX 200 declare subsidiaries in tax havens. For example, global broadcaster 21st Century Fox has 117 and logistics group Toll Holdings 72 in low-tax jurisdictions.
Nearly a third of companies have an average ”effective tax rate” of 10 per cent or less. James Hardie pays an effective rate of 0 per cent tax, Sydney Airport 2 per cent and Echo Entertainment – owner of
Sydney’s Star casino – 5 per cent, the report found. It said many of the lowest-paying companies are real estate investment trusts, which pass some of the tax burden on to investors.
Before its release on Wednesday, the Corporate Tax Association, which represents much of the ASX 200 on tax issues, dismissed the report, saying ”usually there are logical explanations for low effective company tax rates”.
But the authors of the report said the scope of their research made it clear that ”tax minimisation practices of a minority of very large companies have a significant and disproportionate impact on Australia’s corporate tax revenue base”.
David O’Byrne, national secretary of United Voice, said ”the corporate tax system is broken”.
Dave is not the only one!
See below
EDITORIAL
Apple’s Special Irish Tax Breaks
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
SEPTEMBER 30, 2014
There seems to be no end to the resourcefulness of multinational companies when it comes to minimizing taxes — or of countries that help them do so. The latest evidence is a preliminary finding by the European Commission that Ireland provided extravagant tax benefits to Apple that appear to have allowed the company to reduce its tax liability, possibly by billions of dollars since 1991.
In a disturbing 21-page letter made public on Tuesday, the European commissioner for competition, Joaquín Almunia, said that the Irish government had provided state aid to Apple in violation of a European Union treaty. The commission could try to use the finding, which Ireland and Apple dispute, to force the country to recover back taxes from the company.
The letter is the latest document shedding light on corporate tax avoidance. Last year, for example, a Senate subcommittee published a report that showed Apple paid an effective corporate tax rate of just 2 percent in Ireland. Earlier, the same committee reported that other big companies such as Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard had also used aggressive tax avoidance tactics that deprived the federal government of needed revenue, forcing a greater share of the tax burden to fall on individuals.
In his letter, Mr. Almunia says that Irish tax officials and Apple executives negotiated tax rulings in 1991 and 2007 that limited how much tax was paid by two of Apple’s Irish subsidiaries. Instead of following a transparent method to determine the taxes that one of those companies owed, the 1991 ruling “reverse engineered” a way to come up with a taxable income figure that fell between $28 million and $38 million — a range, the letter said, that was without “any economic basis.” In 2007, Ireland began using a different approach but did not explain how it came up with the new method.
One document submitted by the Irish government to the commission indicates that it may have granted favorable treatment to Apple because it was the largest employer in the city of Cork, where it employed 1,000 people in 1990. The company now has 4,000 employees in Cork. Edward Kleinbard, a tax law professor at the University of Southern California, likens Ireland’s favorable tax treatment of Apple to the tax breaks American states and cities often give to businesses that agree to create jobs.
Whatever Ireland’s rationale, lawmakers around the world have not cracked down on — and in some cases encouraged — aggressive tax avoidance by big corporations. That is why the European Commission’s letter, which shows some overdue resolve, is important. (In addition to the Apple case in Ireland, Mr. Almunia also made public on Tuesday a letter he sent to Luxembourg questioning that country’s tax treatment of the carmaker Fiat.)
But Europe’s efforts, however welcome, are not sufficient by themselves. Lawmakers around the world must agree not to compete by offering relative tax advantages that hurt everyone. And they must tighten rules that let multinational companies avoid paying the taxes they owe.
Meet The New York Times’s Editorial Board »
Fair taxation is a major issue. It is not a left or right issue. Taxpayers in all countries need to have confidence that taxation law is equitable.
Ireland is being taken for a ride by these multinationals.
EQUALITY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!
- AND THAT INCLUDES TAX LAW!
It is no wonder that 60 per cent of the ASX 200 companies use tax havens (“Big business ‘shirks’ fair share of tax load”, September 29). They are simply following the example set by Australia’s $100 billion Future Fund. This fund invests overseas using 47 tax haven entities it owns, and three it does not own – 50 all up.
The Future Fund pays no Australian income tax, just GST and FBT. Joe Hockey has stated that the Future Fund is following its own environmental, social and governance (ESG) guidelines, and is operating within the framework of the principle of sovereign immunity (the state cannot commit a legal wrong). The government’s concerns with multinationals using tax havens appears to be a case of “do as I say, don’t do as I do”. Sovereign funds are not of a higher moral order than an ordinary corporation.
Bill Johnstone Marrickville
SENATE INQUIRY TO SHINE A LIGHT ON CORPORATE TAX AVOIDANCE
THU 02 OCT 14
United Voice welcomes the establishment today (2 October) by the Australian Senate of an inquiry into corporate tax in Australia.
David O’Byrne, National Secretary of United Voice, who launched the ground-breaking report into corporate tax Who Pays for our Common Wealth? on Monday (29 September), said it was an important first step in ensuring all Australian corporations are paying their fair share of tax.
“Following the release of the report the community was shocked to learn that many of Australia’s largest corporations are legally eliminating the need to pay tax at all or reducing their tax bills to 10% or less.
“It has been particularly pleasing that members of the business community, like Richard Goyder and Gerry Harvey, have also spoken out against tax avoidance by some large corporations.
“The Senate Inquiry will help the Australian people understand how Australia’s corporate tax system is broken and hopefully how we can begin to fix it,” Mr O’Byrne said.
http://www.unitedvoice.org.au/press-releases/senate-inquiry-shine-light-corporate-tax-avoidance
Apple risks having to repay Ireland tax rebates worth billions of dollars after the European Union’s competition watchdog said Tuesday the company appears to be benefiting from illegal tax deals there.
An investigation by Fairfax Media earlier this year found that despite an estimated $2 billion in Australian sales in 2013, Apple only reported pre-tax profits of $88.5 million. It’s alleged Apple has moved more than $9 billion from Australia to Ireland, where it enjoys a very low tax rate.
It was also found that Apple’s revenues in Australia has totalled $27 billion since 2002 but the company has only paid $193 million in taxes locally — 0.7 per cent of its turnover.
I feel so bad for him …
Its all a game.
Cameron is just trying to appease voters and extremists in his party. His stance if you can call it that is the stance of a hypocrite. The best policy for Ireland being small and having greater flexibility is :-
1 to make a few concessions and introduce further innovation elsewhere.
2 never allow a banking cartel/eu power brokers force a recession on us again.
3 introduce incentives to encourage Us companies to set up r and d facilities here.
4 maintain strong relations with Uk and eu but especially US where the Irish diaspora do play a role.
5 Develop relations with emerging powers russia, china, india, brazil.
6 never get drawn into global conflicts. Help though charities and similar initiatives.
7 Incentivise local entrepreneurs especially where we have a competitive advantage organic farming, fishing , tourism, IT etc.
7 become self reliant and efficient.
Did you say efficient?
CHRIS UHLMANN: Now is the Government letting billions in tax dollars leak offshore as companies evade tax?
JOE HOCKEY: Well no, but we are doing everything we can in a concerted fashion to ensure that companies that earn profits in Australia pay tax in Australia. Now, there’s been a lot of reporting lately that is well intentioned but it has been inaccurate.
The fundamental point is, unless we approach the taxation of businesses from a global perspective – which we are doing through the G20 – then it simply means that companies can go and move their profits to other countries and we never see the tax that should be paid.
CHRIS UHLMANN: So Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, how are you going to get that money?
JOE HOCKEY: Well, without naming specific companies, if a company has a product that they sell in Australia and a comparable product in another jurisdiction and there is a price differential then clearly, the starting point is that that’s a taxable income in Australia.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Is the US on board with this? I can understand that other countries are but most of those companies are pretty well onside with the US administration.
JOE HOCKEY: Well, I think in my discussions with Jack Lew, the secretary of the US Treasury in Cairns – and also, I have no doubt, next week again in Washington – there is a global resolve to ensure that companies pay their fair share of tax wherever they are based.
Now, it’s hugely important Chris, to ensure that companies that operate out of an island for profit purposes are paying their proper tax.
So the major economies of the world can come to agreement but if you know, there is going to be an outlier nation that allows them to operate as a tax haven then it simply means we can’t get them. So the global approach that Australia is leading under the Abbott government, the global approach that we are leading is going to ensure that these companies pay their fair share of tax, wherever they earn their profits.
joe Hockey is the Australian Treasurer
Chris Uhlmann reported this story on Wednesday, October 1, 2014 08:09:11
Audio – Transcript
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2014/s4097891.htm
Hopefully our bully government grow a pair and stand up to this “attack ” from Europe. But as with all bullies they can only bully the little people . The shoes on the other foot now enda !!!
And giving job which irish companies aren’t doing
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