Two days after the day of actions targeting Apple Stores across France, Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe announces that he has reached an agreement with Apple on the creation of a blocked account for the payment of its disputed €13 billion fine. [1]. This is a first victory that shows that even a giant like Apple is not above the law.
Since the beginning of November, the revelations of the "Paradise Papers" on the subsidiaries created by Apple in Jersey and the actions carried out by Attac in the framework of the #iPhoneRevolt campaign have increased the pressure on the multinational, which has finally decided to pay the 13 billion euro fine pronounced in August 2016 by the European Commission. Attac, which is due to meet Apple France's management within a fortnight, is still asking the Cupertino firm to withdraw its appeal against this fine, which was filed in December 2016 with the European Court of Justice. Apple, which has amassed an indecent windfall of more than 200 billion euros in tax havens, must stop artificially relocating its profits and undertake to pay its taxes where it carries out its activities.
A global tax on multinationals
To prevent multinationals from evading their fair share of taxes, the rules of the game must be rethought. On the eve of the European Council that is to discuss the taxation of GAFA, Attac calls on the European States to seize the project of a global tax on multinationals. This tax consists in a fair distribution of the taxable profits of multinationals on the basis of objective indicators of their activity in each country: number of employees, equipment (factories, points of sale...) and sales. [2]. This tax can be applied without delay throughout France. But it will be all the more effective if it is implemented collectively, in particular through enhanced cooperation between several countries determined to put an end to tax evasion by multinationals.
The global tax on multinationals goes much further than Emmanuel Macron's proposal for a turnover tax, and would be much more effective than the OECD's BEPS plan or the European Commission's draft CCCTB directive. It could form the basis of a new global order in which tax havens and tax competition would no longer have a place.
2] For more information, read the Attac report. "Apple, the global heist"
