15 Jan 2016

Apple's high ideals and low tax bill

From Checkpoint, 12:45 pm on 15 January 2016

This story was originally published in First Person.

This started as a podcast about Apple, then (just like an apple) it grew.

John Campbell is an Apple user, he has an iPod and an iPhone (it's a bashed old 4, but he loves it).

But when John heard that for the financial year ending 27 September 2014, Apple New Zealand had revenue of $568 million and paid tax of only $6.8 million, he was really confused.

How?

Why?

The answer, it seems, is in Apple New Zealand's cost of sales - $551 million.

That's 97% of their revenue.

Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo: AFP

John set out to find Apple New Zealand, so he could ask them why their costs were so high?

In the process he learnt all about a revolutionary move by the OECD to address multinational tax avoidance.

Starring the OECD's Pascal Saint-Amans, New Zealand's Bernard Hickey, Apple and John Campbell himself, this is a podcast of taxes, questions, confusion and discovery.