Apple pays 2% corporation tax outside US

TECHNOLOGY GIANT Apple paid approximately 2% in corporation tax outside the United States, according to its filing with the country's regulators.

It paid $713m (£445m) in the year ending 29 September on foreign pre-tax profits of $36.8bn – just 1.9% – the company's 10-K form filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows. The form is used to summarise the performance of public companies.

The news comes after it emerged overseas companies could owe HM Revenue & Customs as much as £11bn, while money owed by domestic businesses may bring the figure up to £25bn.

The data, from law firm Pinsent Masons, shows that 44% of corporations that wrongly withhold tax from the Revenue are overseas businesses.

It is not the first time Apple's tax affairs have been in the spotlight, after it emerged in April that the company had paid just £10m of UK corporation tax despite earning £6bn in 2010/11.

Fellow multinationals Amazon, Facebook, Starbucks and Google have also been accused of engaging in tax mitigation schemes, with the latter pair set to appear before the Public Accounts Committee in the near future.

HM Revenue & Customs bosses – including chief executive Lin Homer – are due to appear before the committee later today as it looks at the department's accounts for 2011/12.

No date has yet been set for Google's and Starbucks' appearances.