Ikea accused of dodging €1 billion in taxes

Ikea is faced with accusations of dodging payment of at least €1 billion in taxes owed to nations in the EU over the past six years. The accusations have been levelled by the EU's Green party, as it sought a government investigation of findings in a report it commissioned.

According to The Greens/European Free Alliance (EFA) group in the European Parliament, the world's biggest furniture retailer was using loopholes to avoid paying taxes, as per a 12 February statement on the website of the party.

The report comes as European officials are moving ahead with probes into Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc for tax deals they set up in Ireland and Luxembourg respectively.

According to an EU ruling last month, Belgium's tax arrangement with about 35 companies including Anheuser-Busch InBev SA was illegal and separately it struck down deals involving Starbucks Corp and Fiat SpA last year.

''Ikea is just the latest example of a major multinational going to great lengths to avoid its tax responsibility,'' according to an e-mailed statement by the Greens. ''There is also an urgent need to change the regulatory framework and environment, which facilitates corporate tax avoidance in Europe.''

According to the report, published over the weekend, Ikea was deliberately shifting money from its stores around Europe through a subsidiary in the Netherlands. From there, the funds would go untaxed in Lichtenstein or Luxembourg. Meanwhile, the European Commission, the top EU regulator said it would study the report.

Several media outlets reported Ikea as saying:"Ikea Group is fully committed to managing its operations in a responsible and sustainable way and we pay our taxes in full compliance with national and international tax rules and regulations."

According to the report for 2014 alone, the estimated tax avoidance led to €35 million euros of missing tax revenues in Germany, €24 million in France, and €11.6 million in the UK.