Financial Transparency Coalition

WASHIGNTON, DC – A front-page article in Sunday’s edition of The New York Times drew attention to shady accounting techniques utilized by Apple Inc, the technology giant, to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes each year. However, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) notes that Apple’s tax dodging is only one example of a larger problem: most multinational enterprises abuse tax haven secrecy. Tax haven abuses are estimated to cost the Internal Revenue Service US$100 billion per year and developing economies roughly US$1 trillion annually.

On Sunday, The New York Times ran a massive, 3700-word, story on their investigation into aggressive, but legal, tax avoidance at Apple. Apple uses a wide network of subsidiaries in tax havens to shift profits away from high-tax jurisdictions like the United States. Apple has previously been a noted innovator in the tax strategy department, pioneering techniques to drastically reduce their tax bill. Despite explosive growth in Apple's profits, their tax bill has barely budged in recent years.