Apple has become the latest multinational brand to be named and shamed for its tax avoidance schemes after a US senate committee took the company to task ahead of a hearing later today.
This will see Apple chief Tim Cook hauled before the committee to explain his firm’s financial arrangement’s after the Senate labelled his firm as ‘among America’s largest tax avoiders’.
Apple is accused of constructing a ‘complex web of offshore entities’ in order to shirk its obligations – letting it off the hook for billions of dollars in US income tax.
Committee chairman Carl Levin said: "Apple wasn't satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven.
"Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere."
Apple refutes the allegations saying that it does not practice creative accounting and there is no indication that anything illegal has taken place.
It is believed Apple currently has a cash stockpile of $145bn with $102bn of this being held off shore to avoid a 35 per cent rate of corporation tax.
Similar tax scandals in the UK have recently battered Google and Starbucks.