AB InBev tops report on corporate tax avoidance

Brewing giant AB InBev has come top in a league table of Belgian corporate tax avoidance, paying nothing in Belgium on its €6.7 billion profit last year, according to research by far-left workers' party PTB.

The party's eighth annual ranking of firms paying little or no Belgian tax found that corporate tax avoidance among the country's 1,000 biggest firms was costing the state €14.7 billion in lost revenue.

Over the years that the study has been compiled, the 50 companies that feature on the list each year have paid an average tax rate of 2% on their profits, PTB said. The normal rate of corporation tax in Belgium is 33.99%.

This is not the first year that AB Inbev - brewer of Jupiler, Stella and more - has come top. "The multinational firm is launching an advertising campaign for its 0% alcohol beer. It is already a company with 0% tax," said Marco Van Hees, the report's author.

According to the PTB research, bank group KBC paid 0.3% tax on its €1.18 billion profit last year. Telenet paid nothing on its €1.07 billion pre-tax profit, the party claims.