EU: Starbucks’s tax structure draws scrutiny

The world’s biggest coffee chain has raised suspicions among regulators and local governments by reporting losses in its biggest European markets for years despite recording hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales.

Last year, as European Union regulators opened a formal investigation, a profit materialized: €407 million ($446.6 million), reported by the company’s European head office in Amsterdam. The coffee chain has since moved its headquarters to London.

The reason for the windfall: 502 million Swiss francs ($527.8 million) in dividends, transferred from the company’s coffee-buying unit in Switzerland, which has fewer than 40 employees, according to corporate filings.

The huge profit is likely to stoke concerns around Starbucks’s tax practices in Europe, which are under scrutiny for the second time in just over two years. EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, who is running the bloc’s investigation of Starbucks’s tax affairs, has pledged to announce results by June, which could include sizable back-tax demands.

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