Apple paid no UK corporation tax in 2012

June 30, 2013 7:18 pm

Apple paid no UK corporation tax in 2012
By Vanessa Houlder

Apple did not pay UK corporation tax last year, according to its latest filings, which are likely to underline the controversy over the US tech giant’s tax planning.
In May, a US Senate committee highlighted Apple’s overseas tax rate of less than 2 per cent, which it said reflected its ability to shift profits into Ireland.

Tax deductions from share awards to employees helped wipe out the corporate tax liabilities of the UK subsidiaries in the year to September 2012. In the previous year, the tax reported by the UK subsidiaries was £11.4m.

Apple’s tax affairs became the focus of global scrutiny in May after the US Senate Committee accused Apple of avoiding $10bn of US tax a year. It said the company “left very small earnings, and correspondingly small tax liabilities, in countries around the world” because the economic rights to the goods it sold were held in Ireland.

In 2011, 84 per cent of Apple’s non-US operating income was booked by Apple Sales International, an Irish subsidiary that was not tax resident anywhere and which paid tax at a rate of 0.05 per cent.

The main British subsidiaries – Apple (UK), Apple Europe and Apple Retail UK – made pre-tax profits of £68m in the year to September 2012, according to reports filed at Companies House. The companies reported tax deductions relating to share schemes of £27.7m.

Apple does not disclose how much profit it made from UK consumers as the UK accounted for less than 10 per cent of its overall sales. But its US filings reported it made $15bn of operating profit on $36.3bn of net sales to European customers in 2012.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013.


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