Apple sold $4.2 billion of product in New Zealand, paid $0 local taxes

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>The electronics giant sold $4.2 billion (NZD) worth of products in New Zealand, but it didn't pay any local tax at all. That's according to a Saturday report from the New Zealand Herald. Apple did pay $37 million in income tax based on its New Zealand sales, but it paid that money to the Australian government, since that's where the New Zealand operation is run from.

>The arrangement to send the tax on New Zealand profits to Australia has been in place since at least 2007. Experts confirmed the arrangement is legal under New Zealand law.

>"They're operating completely legally," said Deborah Russell, a university lecturer who was recently selected to be a candidate in the New Zealand Labour Party. "It's just that age-hold distinction between legality and morality."

>John Payne, a spokesman for a New Zealand business lobby called the Corporate Taxpayers Group, said the same tax techniques used by Apple are used by local exporters.

>"It's Tax 101 in terms of activity," Payne told the newspaper. "And it's quid pro quo for us when we're operating similarly in another country."

>The Herald calculated that, if Apple had "reported the same healthy profit margin in New Zealand as it did for its operations globally," it would have paid $356 million NZD in taxes.

>"Apple aims to be a force for good, and we're proud of the contributions we've made in New Zealand over the past decade," an Apple Australia representative told the newspaper. "Because our products and services are created, designed and engineered in the US. That's where the vast majority of our tax is paid."

https://arstechnica.com/business/2017/03/report-apple-stiffs-new-zealanders-completely-on-taxes/