Global corporate tax system must be overhauled: Apple CEO

Growth of internet giants has pushed international tax rules to the limit

DUBLIN: The growth of internet giants such as Apple has pushed international tax rules to the limit, prompting the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to pursue global reforms over where multinational firms should be taxed.
The reforms being examined centre around the booking of profits by multinational firms in low-tax countries such as Ireland where they have bases, rather than where most of their customers are.
“I think logically everybody knows it needs to be rehauled, I would certainly be the last person to say that the current system or the past system was the perfect system. I’m hopeful and optimistic that they (the OECD) will find something,” said Apple’s CEO Tim Cook.
“It’s very complex to know how to tax a multinational... We desperately want it to be fair,” the Apple CEO added after receiving an inaugural award from the Irish state agency responsible for attracting foreign companies recognizing the contribution of multinationals in the country.
Apple is one of Ireland’s largest multinational employers with 6,000 workers. Apple and the Irish government have gone to court to fight a European Union order that Apple must pay 13 billion euros ($14.41 billion) in back taxes to Dublin.
The appeal to the EU’s second-highest court began in September and could run for years. Cook said Apple’s belief that “law should not retrofitted” was at the heart of the case and that the company had great faith in the justice system.
Apple’s commitment to Ireland, which became its first European operation in 1980, was “unshakable,” said Cook.