Some time ago I defined the ultimate aim of the offshore operator as being "nowhere".
It seems Apple are aiming for that:
APPLE is attempting to find the "Holy Grail of tax avoidance", according to a US Senate committee as it prepares to take testimony from the technology company's chief executive on its offshore tax affairs.
According to the Senate three of their subsidiaries are "nowhere".
This is the ultimate in abuse, if true.
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Virtual Ownership or Cloud Ownership, with Earthly Sales and Distribution. You can suck the money, and then disappear into the cloud. Brave New World! It seems the flights to the Cloud start from Ireland or another suitable tax haven. Money and wealth itself has also gone virtual today, losing its original sense of purpose as a facilitator of ethical exchange.
Virtual Ownership or Cloud Ownership, with Earthly Sales and Distribution. You can suck the money, and then disappear into the cloud
This is exactly the same model ThePirateBay are using to avoid being taken down over copyright infringement.
Richard I’ve just opened the last item on your blog, so apologies if you have referred to Robert Peston’s article earlier. It is definitely worth reading as he tackles Apple’s tax avoidance from a slightly different angle.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22607349
Not ethical, but logical
I liked this bloggers comment on the Peston article:
If a company chooses not to pay tax then it should no longer be protected from crime by police, protected from fire by the fire brigade, protected by the courts for intellectual property infringement, and shouldn’t be allowed to use any public roads or other infrastructure to transport it’s products.
If they don’t want to help pay for civilisation, they shouldn’t be able to enjoy it’s benefits.
Apologies for the O/T; I’d have offered this on the npower articles here, but comments are now closed there. I’m a 38 Degrees subscriber, and decided to move energy suppliers as a result of their campaign – I’d been planning to move to genuinely green supplier anyway.
It may be of interest to readers here that 38 Degrees members taking part in the campaign were given a chance to write to Paul Massara, the npower CEO. Everyone who emailed him appear to have received a reply, which reads as follows:
Keep the good work!
38 Degrees issued a reply this afternoon
WATCH APPLE HEARING LIVE HERE!
http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/hearings/offshore-profit-shifting-and-the-us-tax-code_-part-2
I think I’ve rehearsed this argument through a comment before, but it’s worth repeating. It’s quite clear from the attitude of senior management and statements made, that many multinationals – perhaps the majority – nowadays take the view that by agreeing to locate some of their activities in a country, and thus employing people, AND gifting the kudos that comes with their brand identity (and this applies to “sexy” internet age companies like Google, Amazon, etc in particular), they have contributed all they should to a national economy.
This view is given further legitimacy when government ministers, up to and including Cameron himself, and politicians generally, routinely fawn all over these captains of industry. And, worst still, appear completely relaxed about handing over key aspects of government and governing to them, conflating the public interest and the requirements of representative democracy with the narrow self interest of big business.
Pretty much a definition of fascism, as outlined in some of Mussolini’s statements about the corporate stated and the third way. Or so it seems to me
Since when did private business become the domain of government?
Private business operates to make a profit and returns for shareholders.
They have no duty to ‘contribute’ anything to the government.
Utter nonsense
They operate under licence from and with the protection of government
They owe in exchange