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July 4, 2013

Irish MPs dismiss call to question tax arrangement of Google, Apple

Ireland was forced to defend its tax practices.

By CBR Staff Writer

An Irish parliamentary committee has voted not to haul up multinational firms to question their tax arrangement in the country, after it was accused of providing a tax haven for firms like Google and Apple.

Ireland was forced to defend its tax practices over firms after the US Senate revealed that Apple paid little or no tax on its profits channelled via Irish subsidiaries.

However, the opposition party Sinn Fein demanded that firms such as Apple be dragged before Ireland’s parliament, while the appeal was rejected by a margin of five-to-one vote by committee members from the country’s three largest parties.

Sinn Fein’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said: "How can we look anybody in the eye out there and defend the type of austerity measures that this government is introducing when we’re unwilling to take companies in [before parliament] who are notpaying their fair share in this state?"

"It can only be presented as this committee protecting these multinational firms who pay no tax here, who don’t employ anybody and who don’t pay any tax internationally," Doherty said.

"I think it makes a mockery out of this committee, an absolute mockery."

Irish parliament assured investigation into tax and multinationals following a US Senate inquiry into Apple, which revealed that the iPhone maker booked two-thirds of its $34bn global profits between 2009 and 2012 in firms registered in Cork.

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Apple alleged that three key offshore firms are not tax residents of Ireland, where they are integrated, or of the US, where its executives manage and control the firms.

Recently, Apple has also been reportedly accused of avoiding paying UK corporation tax in 2012, and used tax deductions from share awards to employees to assist in eliminating the corporation tax liabilities of its UK businesses.

Google has also been accused of transferring about $10bn in global revenue to its operations in Bermuda, which has been reported to save the company about $2bn in tax.

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt defended its tax affairs in the UK by saying that it would pay more tax in the country if the country’s tax laws are modified.

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