Brussels, 21/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - The unions have hit out at the American fast-food giant McDonald's, with the publication of a new report describing how the multinational uses aggressive strategies to avoid paying tax in some of the main countries in which it operates. This is the second report of its kind, following the one published by a coalition of unions in February this year (see EUROPE 11262).
Entitled “Golden Dodges: How McDonald's Avoids Paying Its Fair Share of Tax”, this latest report is the work of a coalition of unions made up of Public Services International, the International Union of Foodworkers and the Service Employees International Union. On Europe, it presents the same conclusions as the previous one: that the multinational avoided about a billion euros' worth of tax between 2009 and 2013 by exploiting its franchising model to generate most of its revenue through royalty payments rather than direct store operations.
“Much of the royalty payments are then passed through to offshore tax subsidiaries in tax havens”, the unions explain in a press release. In total over this period, they allege that McDonald's avoided paying $1.8 billion in tax internationally, including 497 million Australian dollars in Australia and €1 billion in Europe. The report calls on the governments to investigate, to exchange conclusions and to put their tax administrations in a stronger position. The European Commission is currently investigating the case of McDonald's (see EUROPE 11287). (Elodie Lamer)