The EU’s top economic affairs official on Monday said that companies should pay taxes where they earn profits, days after a report of another firm using aggressive strategies to lower their bill.
When asked about a report that the world’s top furniture company IKEA might have underpaid taxes by 1 billion euros (US$1.1 billion) using aggressive tax strategies, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici said “a company should pay taxes where they generate profits.”
He told journalists during a visit to the southern French city of Toulouse that “we’ve had enough of multinational firms benefitting from this or that favorable rule ... to avoid paying tax where they did business to pay little in taxes in countries where the rates are low.”
He declined to name any company.
However, the Green/EFA group in the European Parliament on Friday last week said it had commissioned research that shows IKEA “structured itself to dodge 1 billion euros in taxes over the last six years using onshore European tax havens.”
The European Commission said on Saturday it would examine the claims, while IKEA defended its management of its tax affairs.
Moscovici last month announced a raft of measures to combat tax avoidance, in addition to EU investigations under way into the tax deals of major groups such as Apple Inc, Starbucks Corp and McDonald’s.
The measures from the European Commission call for big companies to be obliged to report profit country by country — a break with the previous practice that allowed multinationals to secretly shift revenue across borders to save on tax.
Another requirement will compel nations to agree on minimum standards for drawing up tax rules, so that multinationals stop the practice of shopping around for loopholes to avoid paying tax altogether.
The initiative comes amid growing public outrage about tax avoidance by multinational corporations.
Last month Google agreed to pay ￡130 million (US$185.4 million) in back taxes to Britain after a scathing government inquiry into the search giant’s tax arrangements.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne hailed the agreement as a victory, but the sum provoked a barrage of criticism for being too low.
Moscovici said that small and medium-sized businesses “pay on average 30 percent more in corporate taxes than multinationals. That can’t, shouldn’t continue.”
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco), the Saudi state-owned oil giant, yesterday posted first-quarter profits of US$26 billion, down 4.6 percent from the prior year as falling global oil prices undermine the kingdom’s multitrillion-dollar development plans. Aramco had revenues of US$108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange. The company saw US$107.2 billion in revenues and profits of US$27.2 billion for the same period last year. Saudi Arabia has promised to invest US$600 billion in the US over the course of US President Donald Trump’s second term. Trump, who is set to touch
SKEPTICAL: An economist said it is possible US and Chinese officials would walk away from the meeting saying talks were productive, without reducing tariffs at all US President Donald Trump hailed a “total reset” in US-China trade relations, ahead of a second day of talks yesterday between top officials from Washington and Beijing aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by his aggressive tariff rollout. In a Truth Social post early yesterday, Trump praised the “very good” discussions and deemed them “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner.” The second day of closed-door meetings between US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) were due to restart yesterday morning, said a person familiar
RSS