Husic questions whether Apple misled parliament

Apple should consider revising the evidence it
gave to the IT pricing inquiry, according to
Labor MP Ed Husic, who has questioned whether
the Cupertino giant misled parliament by not
fully disclosing its global corporate structure.
After being summoned to the inquiry in March,
Apple's vice president in Australia and New
Zealand, Tony King, pushed the blame for the
pricing disparity for IT and digital content
between Australia and the United States from
Apple to the content owners.
In response to a question on where Apple
Australia sources its hardware, King said Apple
sourced its hardware from overseas and that the
prices were set in Cupertino, but the entire
corporate structure was "very robust".
"We have very robust and deep accounting
systems in place to ensure that all of the
revenues associated with doing business in
Australia are fairly reported and all of the cost
of sale in terms of the hardware, transformation
costs and shipping costs are fairly reported," he
said.
"Certainly at a global level we are setting
consistent product costs for internal use around
the world. Those are a function of a number of
different things but I am not privy to the
underlying details within the product costs."
In Parliament on Tuesday night, Husic
questioned whether, in light of evidence from
the US Senate around Apple's corporate and tax
structure that said price was determined by
Apple in Singapore.
"I am concerned the committee inquiry has
been misled, either deliberately or
accidentally," he said.
"The corporate structure detailed in the US
Senate report was never offered by Apple
Australia and when pressed on its transfer
pricing or price setting, I put it to the House
that Apple deliberately avoided setting out the
detail that became evident in the US Senate
report," he said.
Husic said he called on Apple Australia to
correct the record or provide further detail on
the way it sets prices for products sold in
Australia.
Apple has been contacted for comment.
The US Senate determined that Apple had
implemented a complex web of subsidiaries
based across a number of countries to minimise
the taxes the company pays. It had been
determined, for example, that Apple paid just
two percent tax on profits of US$74 billion
through its Ireland subsidiary.
ZDNet understands that the parliamentary
committee investigating IT pricing disparity in
Australia is likely to table its report in the next
few weeks before parliament rises for the
federal election.