Apple paid less than 2% tax on overseas profit last year

Apple staff in Sydney, Australia, welcome customers to the launch of the iPhone 5. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Apple paid less than 2% tax on profit made outside the United States last year.

The iPhone and iPad maker paid $713m (?445m) in overseas corporation tax on foreign profits of $36.87bn (?23bn) in the year to the end of September. That translates as a tax rate of 1.9%, compared to a headline corporation tax rate of 35% in the US and 24% in the UK.

The details were revealed in Apple's 10K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Apple has not broken any laws by arranging its tax payments this way, but it is likely to reignite debate about the astonishingly small amount of tax US multinationals pay in the UK.

Google, Amazon and Starbucks will be hauled before the Commons public accounts committee on Monday to explain why they pay so little tax to the exchequer.

Analysis by the Guardian found that Google, Amazon, Starbucks and Facebook have paid just ?30m in tax over the past four years despite generating more than ?3.1bn in sales.

Margaret Hodge, who chairs the committee, said: "We want to ask them for an opportunity to explain why they don't pay proper levels of tax in the UK."

Matt Brittin, the managing director of Google, has claimed to be too busy to attend the committee.

David Cameron has said he is "not happy with the current situation" of Apple, Google, Facebook, eBay and Starbucks avoiding nearly ?900m of tax.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/04/apple-paid-low-overseas-tax

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