PARIS, November 6. /TASS/. Luxembourg has brokered secret deals with 340 major companies to help them avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes, the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed on Thursday.
The six-month investigation has found that Apple, IKEA, Amazon, Pepsi, Deutsche Bank and Credit Agricole Bank were among the companies which used tax avoidance schemes between 2002 and 2010.
During the investigation, called Luxembourg Leaks, a team of over 80 journalists from 26 countries gained access to 28,000 pages of leaked documents which showed that the corporations transferred part of their revenues to Luxembourg, taking advantage of loopholes in the international law.
The world’s largest corporations established their departments or holdings in this European state and reached preliminary agreements with the authorities on the tax level, according to the leaked documents.
“The landlocked European duchy has been called a 'magical fairyland' for brand-name corporations seeking to drastically reduce tax bills,” the ICIJ said on its website.
Le Monde newspaper, which published the results of the investigation along with other outlets, stressed that Luxembourg keeps the concluded agreements in secret without detailing them to European partners.