Big tech’s tax bill could kickstart a fairer economy
The world’s largest economies are losing up to US$32 billion in annual tax revenue from Silicon Valley’s top five tech companies: Enough to vaccinate every human on earth.
As public services fall apart and the world faces a vaccine apartheid, tech giants and their owners rack up billions in profits because the present global tax system enables them to avoid paying their fair share.
ActionAid's report examines five of the world’s largest tech companies (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft) and the potential tax revenue that their market activity could generate, if the tax regime and resulting corporation tax bills better reflected these companies’ economic presence worldwide.
Our research shows the potential rather than the actual tax losses. At a time when governments are desperately looking for revenue to fund Covid-19 response expenses, not leveraging this potential tax resource is a missed opportunity.
This article was originally published by ActionAid International, “Mission Recovery: How big tech’s tax bill could kickstart a fairer economy”, 20/05/2021