Apple uses another legal entity, Cork, Ireland-based Apple Sales International (ASI) that asks Foxconn to produce a purchased device and to ship it directly to the country where it was ordered. This is part of a game called ¨transfer pricing¨, an OECD-approved legal procedure for multinational corporations to lower their overall average effective tax rate by creating a trans-jurisdiction network of company entities with patent/trademark cross-licensing contracts:
It is not just Apple. For example, this permits SIEMENS AG to claim they are headquartered in the low-tax village of Zug, Switzerland for tax purposes, despite the company´s Web pages state the giant has its HQ in Neuperlach Sued, part of Munich, Germany. Governments lose billions in taxes every year from transfer pricing.