Brussels, 16/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Appearing before the special TAXE committee of the European Parliament on Tuesday 15 March, Google and McDonald's expressed the view that the accounting information of the country-by-country reporting should remain confidential.
“The information should be kept confidential between tax authorities, and not made public. That could harm competition”, said Irene Yates, vice-president of European Operations for McDonald's. Some information under the country-by-country reporting “is commercially sensitive in nature and should not be made public”, added Adam Cohen, representing Google. In April, the European Commission is to make a proposal, probably in the form of amendments to the directive on accounting standards, to the effect that businesses with a consolidated turnover of more than €750 million publish certain accounting information on a country-by-country basis for the EU, and agglomerated figures for the rest of the world (see EUROPE 11473).
Overall, the message sent out by the companies which appeared before the TAXE committee was basically that they would comply with the standards laid down by the governments.
Apple, which is under investigation over potential illegal state aid granted by Ireland, spoke to the MEPs through its representative, Cathy Kearney. “We feel that we have paid every cent of tax that is due in Ireland; we don't feel that there has been state aid involved”, Kearney said. S he went on to explain that Apple was the biggest taxpayer in the world. Apple and Google explained that the vast majority of their taxes were paid in the United States, as that is where they had the greatest economic substance.
Globally, Google's effective taxation rate is 19%, compared with the EU rate of 20%, Cohen stressed. For her part, the Apple representative explained that the company paid its tax in Ireland at the legal rate of 12.5%. The CEO of the group Inter-IKEA, Soren Hansen, said that he had read the report of the Greens/EFA Group on how the company aggressively reduces its tax bill. He added that certain assumptions made by the report were incorrect and misleading. He promised to make a written response to the report and also said that Ikea was taking steps to simplify its structure. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)