Apple and Nike have been outed as two of the biggest tax dodgers in the recently released Paradise Papers. These two massive corporations have been avoiding billions of dollars in taxes through offshore tax havens, purposely putting their profits before their social responsibility to pay taxes.
We know that when corporations don’t pay taxes it removes billions from essential public services like healthcare and education.
This money belongs to the people of the countries Apple and Nike do business in. We need to ensure that these mega-corporations stop putting their own greed ahead of their moral responsibility to pay taxes. They need to stop hiding their money and pay it back in full.
Sign the petition today to tell Apple and Nike to stop avoiding taxes and pay back the billions they owe.
This isn’t the first time Apple has employed a major tax-dodging scheme. In 2014, Apple went shopping for the best tax-avoidance strategy, after being caught not paying taxes to the Republic of Ireland. It settled on the Channel Island of Jersey and has been avoiding billions in corporate taxes ever since.
Nike is not much better. In 2006, Nike made a “sweetheart deal” with the Netherlands allowing it to hide billions in profits in Bermuda for 10 years. The mega multi-national corporation has been generating billions in offshore profit ever since without paying anything in taxes.
All of this has recently been revealed through the Paradise Papers - a collection of 13.4 million confidential documents on offshore investment that identify more than 120 000 corporations and individuals who have been avoiding taxes. If you or I tried to avoid paying our taxes we would have to pay everything back and suffer major consequences. Corporations shouldn’t be any different, especially corporations like Apple and Nike whose taxes owed are in the billions.
SumOfUs has worked at holding tax dodgers accountable before. Last year, when the Panama Papers came out, we rallied around the world to stop tax havens. Over 30 000 of you signed a petition to hold world leaders accountable for stopping tax havens and tens of thousands more signed petitions to hold leaders in Australia and the UK accountable for their personal financial records. We know that, together, we can ensure that tax money ends up in the public coffers to fund vital public services.
Will you sign today to tell Apple and Nike to stop avoiding taxes and pay back the billions they owe?
More information
Business Insider. 7 November 2017.
The Guardian. 6 November 2017.
