Golden Dodges: McDonald’s $1.8 billion global tax avoidance strategy revealed

19.05.2015 | admin

A new report Golden Dodges: How McDonald’s Avoids Paying its Fair Share of Tax, reveals that McDonald’s is using aggressive strategies to avoid paying tax in some of its largest markets.

 

The report Golden Dodges was co-authored by three  International and US trade union federations, including  EPSU’s International sister organisation, Public Services International (PSI), the International Union of Foodworkers ( IUF) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). It follows on the recent report Unhappy Meal that outlines McDonald’s tax avoidance strategies in Europe published by EPSU, EFFAT and PSI’s US affiliate SEIU.

It sheds further light on the hugely exploitative franchising model of the company and brings in new countries such as the US and Australia on the tax dodging menu of the company. Overall, the report shows that across the world McDonald’s is attracting the attention of tax authorities with investigations in at least six countries since 2005.

 

Earlier this year,  the European Commission has launched  a preliminary  investigation in the company’s  tax arrangements in Luxembourg following the publication of the Unhappy meal report

 

Click here to donwload the report

 

Click here to download the EPSU press release

 

The report raises similar questions to those in the European report Unhappy Meal:

 

- The lawfulness of McDonald’s tax scheme should be questioned

 

- Tax authorities in these countries should investigate McDonald’s tax arrangements

 

- European countries should disclose their secret tax rulings

 

- McDonald’s should fully disclose key elements of its tax optimisation strategy

 

- Country-by-country reporting should be mandatory and public across the economy

 

- A public registry of company structures should be put in place at global level

 

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