Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have a number of issues I would like to raise with the Tánaiste but I will concentrate on media reports last week about returns by Apple Sales International which is the Irish subsidiary of Apple based in Cork. While Apple Sales International is an unlimited company in Ireland and is not obliged to make annual returns to the Companies Office, it is obliged to make returns in Australia. According to those returns, in the years 2004 to 2009, Apple was able to cut its tax bill by referring to an income tax at lower rates. In these years, Apple calculated its tax with reference to the Irish rate of 12.5% corporate profit tax. It should have paid $890 million but instead only paid $36 million to the Irish Exchequer. The sum of €36 million is close to the 2% rate which Apple claimed at the US Senate hearings last year was an arrangement with Ireland. In the accounts for the period from 2004 to 2009, Apple does not claim to be using its stateless tax designation; it claims to have availed of income tax at lower rates. Even a very powerful multinational company such as Apple cannot set up its own tax rates. A number of questions arise from last week's revelation in Australia.

Was Apple able to avail of a rate lower than 12.5% between 2004 and 2009 and, if so, what rate was applied and who decided on this lower rate? We are all very aware that the loophole which allowed not just Apple but a range of large multinationals effectively to avoid tax will close from January next year. My question relates specifically to the returns made by Apple in Australia for the years 2004 to 2009 and its claim that it availed of a lower rate of tax in Ireland, a claim the Government has repeatedly refuted in the past year.

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