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Apple sold $4.2 billion of product in New Zealand, paid $0 local taxes

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Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
https://arstechnica.com/business/2017/03/report-apple-stiffs-new-zealanders-completely-on-taxes/

The electronics giant sold $4.2 billion (NZD) worth of products in New Zealand, but it didn't pay any local tax at all. That's according to a Saturday report from the New Zealand Herald.
Click to expand...

It gets better.

Someone will come here saying they probably paid some other tax.

Apple did pay $37 million in income tax based on its New Zealand sales, but it paid that money to the Australian government, since that's where the New Zealand operation is run from.

The arrangement to send the tax on New Zealand profits to Australia has been in place since at least 2007. Experts confirmed the arrangement is legal under New Zealand law.

"They're operating completely legally," said Deborah Russell, a university lecturer who was recently selected to be a candidate in the New Zealand Labour Party. "It's just that age-old distinction between legality and morality."
Click to expand...
 
K

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Disgusting. This bullshit really needs to stop and these greedy fucking corporations need to start paying local taxes.
 
F

FatalT

Banned
You think Apple gives a shit about what's ethical and moral to do? Keep upgrading those phones though bruhs.
 
C

chillybright

Banned
The arrangement to send the tax on New Zealand profits to Australia has been in place since at least 2007. Experts confirmed the arrangement is legal under New Zealand law.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a problem with New Zealand law.
 
M

Mimosa97

Member
GOOD. BUSINESS.

Same shit in Europe. All these giant multinational corporations pay nothing in taxes and reap billions in profits every year. Fuck our feckless politicians and their inhuman neoliberal agenda.
 
S

Seth Enosh

Member
Headline is misleading, it should say zero local income tax, not zero local tax. They surely paid property taxes and VAT on sales according to local law.

Saw this on another site and it was mentioned they paid 30% Australian income tax instead of 28% NZ tax. What's the problem?
 
D

D4Danger

Unconfirmed Member
Seth Enosh said:
Headline is misleading, it should say zero local income tax, not zero local tax. They surely paid property taxes and VAT on sales according to local law.

Saw this on another site and it was mentioned they paid 30% Australian income tax instead of 28% NZ tax. What's the problem?
Click to expand...

you know they aren't the same country, right?
 
K

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Seth Enosh said:
Headline is misleading, it should say zero local income tax, not zero local tax. They surely paid property taxes and VAT on sales according to local law.

Saw this on another site and it was mentioned they paid 30% Australian income tax instead of 28% NZ tax. What's the problem?
Click to expand...
Try reading that sentence slowly back to yourself and think on it for a few seconds.
 
N

neorej

ERMYGERD!
Sounds fair. Just imagine all those NZ employees who have a job right now because of this arrangement. Do you want them out of a job? Do you want them to be fired?

/sarcasm
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Seth Enosh said:
Headline is misleading, it should say zero local income tax, not zero local tax. They surely paid property taxes and VAT on sales according to local law.

Saw this on another site and it was mentioned they paid 30% Australian income tax instead of 28% NZ tax. What's the problem?
Click to expand...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goods_and_Services_Tax_(New_Zealand)
End users pay this tax on all liable goods and services indirectly, in that the purchase price of goods and services includes GST.
Click to expand...

lol @ the bolded.
 
C

ClosingADoor

Member
Disgusting. Countries need to come together to combat this stuff. If you sell stuff in a country, the profits should be taxed there also.
 
R

RevoDS

Junior Member
It's the government's job to make laws that ensure they get their fair share of tax.

Apple isn't a charity, it's not its job to donate money because incompetent politicians don't make proper regulations.
 
I

inky

Member
Seth Enosh said:
Headline is misleading, it should say zero local income tax, not zero local tax. They surely paid property taxes and VAT on sales according to local law.

Saw this on another site and it was mentioned they paid 30% Australian income tax instead of 28% NZ tax. What's the problem?
Click to expand...

map-of-australia-newzealand-lgb.jpg
 
C

ClosingADoor

Member
RevoDS said:
It's the government's job to make laws that ensure they get their fair share of tax.

Apple isn't a charity, it's not its job to donate money because of incompetent politicians
Click to expand...
Oh, come on. They go out of their way to find loopholes and such to prevent paying taxes. Fuck them for doing that.
 
B

Breads

Banned
From a related article.

Europe's competition chief has ordered Ireland to reclaim €13 billion in back taxes from Apple.
Click to expand...

Damn... I now wonder how much they're getting away with.
 
K

Kaako

Felium Defensor
RevoDS said:
It's the government's job to make laws that ensure they get their fair share of tax.

Apple isn't a charity, it's not its job to donate money because incompetent politicians don't make proper regulations.
Click to expand...
Major corporation like Apple/Google/Amazon/etc aren't a charity, but they do everything in their power to find tax loop-holes and avoid paying what's due any chance they get. They have fleets of lawyers JUST for this shit. So fuck every single one of them for this and them some.
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Kaako said:
Major corporation like Apple/Google/Amazon/etc aren't a charity, but they do everything in their power to find tax loop-holes and avoid paying what's due any chance they get. They have fleets of lawyers JUST for this shit. So fuck every single one of them for this and them some.
Click to expand...

Again it appears on the surface they ARE paying taxes. They just are somehow paying Australia and not NZ for their business in NZ.
 
L

LakeEarth

Member
It's what big corporations do. Pay the bare minimum, and then use the profits to lobby countries to lower the bare minimum. Repeat until $0.
 
D

Dingens

Member
wow... the level of victim blaming is always bewildering.
NZ gets tax-raped, but people would rather blame them for not keeping its loop-hole tightly enough together instead of the rapist - because avoiding tax is what tax-rapists do. It's just natural
 
N

n!smo

Neo Member
"Apple aims to be a force for good, and we're proud of the contributions we've made in New Zealand over the past decade," an Apple Australia representative told the newspaper. "Because our products and services are created, designed, and engineered in the US, that's where the vast majority of our tax is paid."
Click to expand...

[Apple] would owe $59.2 billion in US taxes if these profits were not officially held offshore for tax purposes. This means that Apple has paid a miniscule 2.3 percent tax rate on its offshore profits. That confirms that Apple has been getting away with paying almost nothing in taxes on the huge amount of profits it has booked in Ireland..

https://arstechnica.com/business/2015/10/apple-google-microsoft-hold-more-than-336b-overseas-via-legal-tax-loopholes/
Click to expand...

This is some Trump level of bs, just more eloquent
 
D

djkimothy

Member
Exile20 said:
Even if Apple was guilty, they would just get a small fine that is paltry compared to the profits they made and no one goes to jail.
Click to expand...

Why would they even be fined when that is the tax environment they work in. Go after the country's law makers for enabling this. Apple, Google and Samsung are just playing by the rules given to them.
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
The kind of shit and loopholes lawyers find for not paying taxes is on par with cheating by using your notes during a test and then when you are caught you blame the teacher for not having a sign up on the wall that says you can't cheat.
 
N

numble

Member
Exile20 said:
My goodness they paid 0.88% tax on 4.2 billion?
Click to expand...
It isn't $4.2 billion of income. If it made $4.2 billion of income just on New Zealand sales, shareholders would be ecstatic. It had $60 billion net income it's last fiscal year.

Now for the income attributable to the $4.2 billion in New Zealand revenue, the tax on that in an ideal world should be divvied up along the whole value chain, from China to California and Australia and New Zealand. But even in that ideal world, it would not result in much tax paid to New Zealand, which only has the simple retailer function. It might even be the same situation today--there are no Apple Stores in New Zealand, Apple just either ships Apple products to New Zealand users from Australia, or sells Apple products to New Zealand retailers from Australia, which results in no tax having to be paid to New Zealand by Apple.
 
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