Rule changes could see Kellogg’s tax bill go snap, crackle and pop

Some readers may have spat out their cornflakes this morning while reading in The Irish Times that one of Kellogg's Irish entities paid just €7 million in tax over five years on sales of more than €7.1 billion.

Corporate taxes are paid on profits, of course, not sales, but costs are very often managed by multinationals to ensure there is not a lot of profitability left to be taxed. This may be legal, but it has also greatly irked governments, which are now on a mission to clamp down on the most egregious aspects of international corporate tax avoidance.

The entry of Kellogg's into the debate is proof that companies from the online and tech sectors, such as Google or Apple, are not the only protagonists when it comes to cutting corporate tax bills.

More traditional behemoths are at it too. Kellogg’s revels in its strong emotional bond with its customers. Its products have sat on family breakfast tables since it was founded 109 years ago.

Sentiment aside, it is also a hulking multinational with international revenues of about $15 billion (€14 billion) and, like any big listed US company, it comes under intense pressure from its shareholders to maximise its profits to boost returns.

Ruthless tax efficiency is one such way to boost returns. Now that governments are rapaciously gunning for them, the tax-avoiding multinationals routinely defend themselves by saying they are only playing by the rules. But they have brought any amount of opprobrium down on their own heads by exploiting loophole after loophole until the fiscal squeeze from the financial crisis made the scales fall from the public’s eyes.

Kellogg’s has stepped forward to tell its investors that the international clampdown on corporate tax avoidance could hit it where it hurts – the bottom line. It is amazing, however, that it is one of the first big US multinationals to do so.

Apple, for example, has been roasted in recent times for its use of Ireland as a cog in its tax avoidance. The “stateless” loophole that allowed it to do this has been closed. Yet, given the presumably significant potential effect of this on its finances, Apple has never felt the need to formally warn its shareholders about the possible impact.

To the chagrin of Irish officials, this country keeps getting dragged into the debate over international tax avoidance. Like cornflakes, it is one thing that will probably never change.