elbales

Ikea is owned by a "charitable foundation," pays only 3.5% tax

POSTED BY CORY DOCTOROW, AUGUST 26, 2009 11:32 PM

Ikea's corporate structure is insanely complicated. It is technically owned by a Dutch charitable nonprofit -- a strategy that allows the group to pay 3.5% tax on annual profits of €553m. However, the charity itself appears to do almost no charitable giving. Most of the money disappears into generic line-items like "other operating charges" which it refuses to explain.

I mean, really. You make money off the labor and ideas of your workers, who get educated for free and get health care for free, and it's all paid for by... taxes. Which you're not paying? WTF.

Yeah, I know businesses (well, all the people who can afford fancy accountants) all try to get out of paying taxes as much as they possibly can. But you know? I don't have to give people like that my money.