Apple Inc has agreed to pay Italy 318 million euros (US$347 million) in taxes for the past several years, prosecutors said on Wednesday, part of a broader European effort to make multinationals pay what they owe in each nation where they do business.
Italy has already brought several cases against international technology companies that have headquarters in low-tax nations like Ireland to avoid paying higher taxes in other nations, like Italy.
The practice, called profit-shifting, has come under attack from the EU, which wants multinationals to pay tax where they earn their revenue, and not where they have their regional base.
The EU’s 28 states agreed in October to share details of tax deals they reach with big companies to make sure they are fair to other nations. The EU has already ordered Starbucks Corp and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV to pay millions in back taxes to Luxembourg and the Netherlands, respectively.
Milan prosecutors on Wednesday confirmed a report in daily La Repubblica that Apple agreed to pay the sum for the years spanning 2008 to 2013. The prosecutors said Apple’s tax liabilities for the five successive years will hinge on an international ruling on such cases. They declined to give details.
They also declined to discuss how payment of back taxes might affect a criminal probe, conducted by the prosecutors, into suspected tax evasion by three Apple employees. La Repubblica said two of the employees are executives based in Italy while the third is based in Ireland.
Apple offices in Milan, London and Ireland were closed on Wednesday. Messages seeking comment were not immediately answered.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly rejected the notion that his company is trying to dodge taxes. In an interview with CBS TV program 60 Minutes aired Dec. 20, he said: “Apple pays every tax dollar we owe.” Independent tax expert Bob Willens said the fact that Apple settled with Italian tax authorities means they are conceding there was something a bit off in the company’s European tax arrangements.
“I don’t think Apple would have agreed to this sanction if they didn’t feel there was something at least questionable in what they were doing,” Willens said.
He said that while the sum was just a “nuisance” for Apple, the case did create a reputational problem: “It’s not a very positive public relations thing to be branded a serial tax avoider.”
Italian state television said the 318 million euros worked out in the agreement is far less than what Italian tax authorities contend should have been paid over those years.
Italian tax authorities have also examined Facebook Inc’s Milan offices’ books. In yet another investigation, Google has said it has been working with Italian tax authorities to determine what it might owe.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
RSS