The EU on Tuesday pushed for Europe to draw up a blacklist of tax havens after the ‘Paradise Papers’ revealed loopholes used by Apple and Nike as well as celebrities such as Formula One champion lewis Hamilton. While seeking to minimise taxes is not necessarily illegal, revelations from the 13.4 million leaked documents, released since the weekend through international media, have already proved embarrassing to figures as diverse as U2 singer Bono and Queen Elizabeth II.
US tech giant Apple is the latest company to become embroiled in the leak, with the documents exposing how the iPhone maker shifted profits from one haven to another to minimise taxes. Apple used offshore law firm Appleby to move tens of billions of dollars from low-tax Ireland to Britain’s Channel Islands when Dublin began tightening its tax laws in 2015, according to documents cited by the New York Times and BBC.