Multinational corporations abuse their tax responsibilities

Fair Tax Mark has released a new report, 'The Silicon Six and their $100 billion global tax gap', which examines the taxes conduct of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google and Microsoft over the last decade.

Amazon is a leader in tax avoidance, according to a study. Over the course of 2010-2019, Amazon has paid $3.4 billion in taxes with revenues of $ 960.5 billion and $26.8 billion of profit.

The report finds that there is a significant difference between the cash taxes paid and both the expected headline rate of tax and, more significantly, the reported current tax provisions. It concludes that the corporation tax paid by Silicon Six is much lower than is commonly understood. Over the period 2010 to 2019 the gap between the expected headline rates of tax and the cash taxes actually paid was $155.3 billion, while the gap between the current tax provisions and the cash taxes actually paid was $100.2 billion

The report suggests that the bulk of the shortfall almost certainly arose outside the United States, given that the foreign current tax charge was just 8.4% of identified foreign profits over 2010-19.
(WBJ)