Apple’s UK Tax Bill in 2015 Equivalent to Two Hours of Sales

While Apple’s tax affairs are under the European Commission’s loop, the Daily Mail reports that the company has just £12.9 million (~CAD$22.26 million) in UK corporation tax last year. Just for comparison, Apple has made enough money in the past year to cover the tax bill it has paid in little over two hours, the report adds.

Apple logo

During the fourth calendar quarter of 2015, Apple’s revenue was USD$75.9 billion, with sales generating a net profit of USD$18.4 billion. This means Apple made £5.8 million (~USD$8.3 million) an hour.

Filings obtained by the Daily Mail show that Apple made £37.5 billion (~CAD$64.7 billion) in profits in the 2015 fiscal year, and accountants estimate that the UK accounted for about £2 billion (~CAD$3.45 billion), which would have resulted in a UK corporate tax of roughly £400 million (~CAD$690 million).

Apple’s corporate tax, however, rose 9% compared to £11.8 million a year earlier. As noted by the Daily Mail, the Apple UK arm showed a 4.6% increase in revenue, but a slight fall in profit to £78 million (~CAD$134.57 million), leading to a drop in corporate tax payments to £6.4 million (~CAD$11.04 million).

Jonathan Isaby, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘This is yet another reminder of how public confidence in our insanely complicated tax code has evaporated.’

An Apple spokeswoman repeated the company’s well-known position on corporate taxes: “We pay all that we owe according to the law. We have a long history in the UK and are proud of the significant contributions we’ve made over the past 36 years.”

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