Apple must report using GRI-207: Tax. All companies must be responsible and support the economies and people on which they rely for growth and profit, by ensuring they pay the same level of taxes as the majority of companies. Businesses cannot succeed in societies that fail and cannot properly fund schools, hospitals and other important infrastructure.

Last week Ireland welcomed a court ruling that denied it more than €14 billion of Apple money in back taxes.  Tweet This!

The sight of a national government going to great legal lengths to avoid receiving billions in tax, cast a light on how Ireland treats multinational companies, especially those from the US, as regards tax. A 2018 study by the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Copenhagen referred to Ireland as “the world’s biggest tax haven.”

So, is Ireland a tax haven? Yes, according to Liz Nelson, director of the Tax Justice Network, an NGO campaigning against global tax avoidance and tax evasion.

The Irish Department of Finance did not respond to a DW request for comment, but the Irish government argues that it taxes companies correctly, according to its own laws.

Here is a portion of a statement Apple provided to DW, which was originally issued after the court verdict:

“We’re proud to be the largest taxpayer in the world as we know the important role tax payments play in society. Apple has paid more than $100 billion in corporate income taxes around the world in the last decade and tens of billions more in other taxes. Changes in how a multinational company’s income tax payments are split between different countries require a global solution, and Apple encourages this work to continue.”

According to Nelson and Eduardo Baistrocchi, a professor of tax law at the London School of Economics, the problem is global.

Baistrocchi argues the tax-hub model is not prohibited by the international tax regime, and adds: “However, it is triggering an ongoing clash between globalization and democracy because of the increasing inability of tax systems to address problems of inequality within countries. This clash has been producing, in turn, electoral shocks in both the developed and developing world such as Brexit, Trump and Bolsonaro.”

He argues that the international tax regime is “broken” because of the power and influence of huge multinationals, such as Apple.

The OECD has been working on striking a global deal on taxation, aimed at curbing multinationals from avoiding tax in the various countries in which they operate.

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

FBRH GRI Standards Certified & ISEP recognised Sustainability Course | Venue: London LSE

By registering for the next 2-day FBRH GRI Standards Certified & ISEP recognised course you will be taking the first step in gaining the many benefits of sustainability reporting.

Most importantly, you will gain the knowledge to use the GRI Standards, project manage your own first-class sustainability report and:

• Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and Society
• Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP

References:

This article is based on published information by DW. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the publication’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.dw.com/en/apple-ireland-tax-avoidance/a-54274213?maca=en-newsletter_en_bulletin-2097-xml-newsletter&r=7178551690125567&lid=1556967&pm_ln=40610

The post Apple tax ruling for Ireland shines light on global tax avoidance appeared first on SustainCase - Sustainability Magazine.

The company says its devices will have had “zero climate impact” at point of sale and any company hoping to become a supplier will have to commit to “be 100% renewable for their Apple production” within 10 years.

This development follows climate-focused pledges by other technology giants.

Microsoft, for example, has promised:

• to be carbon negative by 2030
• by 2050, to have removed the same amount of carbon as it has ever emitted from the environment

Amazon has announced a 2040 target to go carbon neutral and Google has said it also intends to extend the carbon-neutral status it claims for its own operations to include its supply chain.

Rare-earths robot

Apple has also published a 10-year roadmap with some of the actions it plans to take, which include the use of a new robot, nicknamed Dave. The robot will recover materials from the vibrating Taptic Engine of devices returned for recycling.

Apple’s environment chief, Lisa Jackson, said: “Once we have the engine removed [by another robot] Daisy, Dave will disassemble the engine itself and remove the rare-earth elements and the tungsten so that they can be reprocessed and put back into supply chains.”

According to Jackson, more than 70 of the company’s existing suppliers already committed to use 100% renewable energy for work on its products by 2030.

“Some of the investment we’re making is to work with suppliers to convince their own governments to put more clean energy on the grid,” Ms Jackson added.

Other efforts announced by Apple include the following:

• increased use of recycled raw materials in its own products
• new solar-panel projects in Scandinavia, to power its own data centres
• the development of a carbon-free aluminium-smelting process as part of a collaboration with two suppliers
• investment in environmental projects, including work to restore mangrove trees and shrubs on Colombia’s coastline and woodland-grassland savannahs in Kenya
• work on eco-friendly energy projects to benefit local communities, including the installation of rooftop solar panels at a facility for disadvantaged children in the Philippines and the electrification of an off-grid fishing community in Thailand

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

FBRH GRI Standards Certified & ISEP recognised Sustainability Course | Venue: London LSE

By registering for the next 2-day FBRH GRI Standards Certified & ISEP recognised course you will be taking the first step in gaining the many benefits of sustainability reporting.

Most importantly, you will gain the knowledge to use the GRI Standards, project manage your own first-class sustainability report and:

• Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and Society
• Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP

References:

This article is based on published information by BBC News. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the publication’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53485560

The post Apple’s 2030 carbon-neutral pledge covers itself and suppliers appeared first on SustainCase - Sustainability Magazine.