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Apple Tax Shenanigans Exposed By Leaked Documents

Apple, who have done their best to avoid paying tax on the billions they are raking in from the Australian market has apparently switched their tax haven from Ireland to Jersey in the Channel Islands in an effort to avoid paying taxes new taxes leaked papers have revealed.

Apple who had built up a cash pile of more than $US246 billion by minimising the amount of tax they pay in markets such as Australia was exposed by the leaking of The Paradise Papers, it also comes as the Irish Government moves to close loopholes exposed by the European Union who recently ordered Apple to pay back over $15B in back taxes.

Apple immediately warned that future investment by multinationals in Europe could be hit.

The world’s largest company was presented with the huge bill after the European commission ruled that a sweetheart tax deal between Apple and the Irish tax authorities amounted to illegal state aid.

The commission said the deal allowed Apple to pay a maximum tax rate of just 1%. In 2014, the tech firm paid tax at just 0.005%. The usual rate of corporation tax in Ireland is 12.5%.

Their latest move appears to be a process to avoid paying taxes more claims one insider.
The Appleby files, now called the Paradise Papers were obtained by German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

It shed light on what was going on behind the scenes at Apple as the EC investigation ramped up.

Apple’s move to avoid tax after the EU ruling began with a rushed email on March 20, 2014 from Baker McKenzie lawyer Irina Shestakova in San Francisco to Appleby’s global head of corporate, Cameron Adderley, in Hong Kong.

“Our client, Apple, has reached out to us with a request to provide assistance with and co-ordination of a multi-jurisdictional project involving BVI, Cayman, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey,” Shestakova wrote.

An excited Adderley emailed Appleby office around the world: “This is a tremendous opportunity for us to shine on a global basis with Baker & Mackenzie”.

According to Bloomberg the pressure that Apple was feeling had been triggered by a searing report by the US Senate Subcommittee on Investigation in May 2013 detailing how Apple Sales International (ASI) and Apple Operations International, the group’s chief subsidiaries in Ireland, were “stateless”.

They were not taxed in Ireland because they were managed in the US. But they were not taxed in the US because they were Irish companies.

The EC had asked Ireland for details of its arrangement with Apple, but the process appeared to lose momentum after the Irish finance minister Michael Noonan announced on October 15, 2013 the loophole that allowed companies to be stateless would be closed from January 1, 2015.

On March 5, 2014 the Financial Review revealed that Apple had released its Irish accounts from 2001 to 2009, in an obscure filing with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission – it filled the gaps in from the US Senate report, with figures that showed the proportion of profits that ended up in Ireland going forward.

Leaked documents from Bermuda law firm Appleby show Apple started to revise its Irish structure in March 2014.

Events moved quickly. Later that day Ireland supplied the EC with information it had requested in January.

On March 7, the EC ramped up its inquiry into a formal investigation of whether Apple had received illegal state aid from Ireland. It appears to be this move that stirred Apple into motion.

The Financial Review reported that Appleby had had a difficult relationship with Apple and Baker McKenzie. In late 2012 and early 2013 it had provided advice listed as “iTunes Expansion Billing” and “Charitable Promotions Program – Bermuda”. Then there was “Project Charlemagne 4”, “iTunes Affiliate Program”, and another unnamed matter.

It came to $12,671 in billing, and Baker McKenzie had been unhappy with the service.

The bills went unpaid for months.

Appleby called senior Baker McKenzie people to get its outstanding accounts paid.

BM then sent Appleby a form that asked the question “Does your jurisdiction have a bilateral investment treaty with Ireland that protects against expropriation of assets?” the form asked.

“I expect the [fees] involved to be nominal and would ask that you embrace this opportunity to build a closer relationship with B&M and with their prestigious client,” he wrote.

“Finally, for those of you who are not aware, Apple are extremely sensitive concerning publicity and do not generally permit their external counsel to disclose that they have been engaged by Apple or to make any mention,” he concluded.

This information was “need to know” only, he stressed.

On October 14, Irish Finance Minister Noonan announced that “Double Irish” tax arrangements would be eased out over a six-year period beginning on January 1, 2015. But Apple didn’t use a Double Irish structure.

Journalist Simon Bowers found the clue in Appleby’s billing sheets. From December 2014, the deadline for stateless companies, Appleby’s Jersey office began billing Apple Sales International and Apple Operations International for administration fees, reflecting a move in the management of both companies from the US to Jersey, which is a tax haven.

ASI and AOI were no longer stateless. A third company, Apple Operations Europe, became an Irish taxpayer.

In July last year, Ireland announced that its Gross Domestic Product in 2015 had jumped a massive 26.3 per cent, or $US270 billion.

The OECD reported this was due to “a number of large multinational corporations [which] have relocated their economic activities, and more specifically their underlying intellectual property, to Ireland.

Apple is believed to have accounted for more than $US200 billions of this, selling its IP to Apple Operations Europe to utilise a capital allowance that Ireland expanded from 2015, which would allow Apple to retain the minuscule tax rates it enjoys in Ireland.

“The changes we made did not reduce our tax payments in any country,” Apple said in a statement. “In fact, our payments to Ireland increased significantly and over three years [2014, 2015 and 2016] we’ve paid $1.5 billion in tax there – 7 per cent of all corporate income taxes paid in that country.”

Apple estimated earnings through Ireland during those three years is more than $US120 billion.



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