TAAKS AVOID: A PRODUCT NO LONGER AVAILABLE?
How to hide tax money if you know the right tricks
A year ago, the Greens presented the latest IKEA product: Taaks Avoid, an easy-to-assemble item of furniture providing the opportunity to hide tax money if you know the right tricks. If you missed it, you can catch-up here or watch the video.
Given that we are talking of hundreds of millions which didn’t end up in public coffers, we thought the matter deserved some proper follow-up. This is why we have just written to the CEOs of IKEA Group and Inter IKEA Group to find out if anything has changed since our revelations last year.
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We are especially curious to know if:
IKEA has operated any change regarding the composition of the Stichting INGKA board (IKEA Group) and the Interogo Foundation governing bodies (Inter IKEA Group) since the publication of the report?
-> If everyone knows IKEA as one brand, very few know that there are mainly two companies behind it – Inter IKEA Group and IKEA Group. One of the key findings of our report last year was to demonstrate that even if on paper they are two separate entities, in reality they are both controlled by the family of IKEA’s founder and some close relatives. This dual-structure is however convenient for tax purpose though as Inter IKEA owns the IKEA brand and IKEA group owns the shops which pay royalties to Inter IKEA for using the brand.
IKEA could provide more information on their restructuring as of September 2016.
-> Inter IKEA has acquired some entities belonging before to the IKEA Group and we are interested in understanding the potential tax implications of these modifications, especially how the changes were treated by Inter IKEA and IKEA Group in their annual accounts.
IKEA can be a pioneer on tax transparency and commit to implement public country by country reporting, so that citizens know where IKEA companies have activities and where they pay taxes.
-> In a written response to our report (see here), Inter IKEA recognised that they have a complex company structure and showed support for the need to have greater transparency on it. We are taken them by the words as we would love to have IKEA pioneering this idea, in a very Scandinavian spirit.
In the Greens, we love to receive mail – especially good news – so we look forward to get an answer! Don’t hesitate to support our request for answers on Twitter, using @IKEA and @Inter_IKEA
