Aggressive Tax Planning for Digital Economy Companies Case Study -APPLE INC-

Abstract

This study aims to detect fraudulent behaviours practiced internationally by multinational enterprise (MNE) That operate in the digital economy, by diagnosing MNE's aggressive tax planning behavior that seeks to strengthen their tax immunity using a range of financial accounting instruments (transfer rates, interest rate) under an international competition for the creation of financial centers for offshores and tax havens and the polarization of wealth-makers (Giant companies). In completing this study, we relied on a series of annual reports from international organizations and Apple Inc.'s financial reports to analyze and demonstrate Apple Inc.'s financial engineering practices to reduce the tax base and evade the performance of its social duty to the persistence and increasing temptations of offshores centres and tax havens. The study results showes the weakness and limitation of international tax rules against challenges and problems posed by the digital economy within an non harmonised tax environment, which offers more opportunities for tax evasion and avoidance for multinational companies, with an amount of tax avoidance estimated at $2.6 trillion in 2017 for US international companies. Apple Inc. has avoided the largest $78.5 billion tax bill to protect an estimated $252.3 billion in tax revenue from both the US and Ireland through a tight tax plan