EU calls corporations to account for low-tax deals

European Union lawmakers have called 13 multinational companies to a meeting next week to talk about the low-tax deals they have struck with EU jurisdictions.

Among the companies to be questioned on Nov. 16 will be Amazon.com, Disney, Coca-Cola Co, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, HSBC Holdings, Ikea Group and Philip Morris International Inc. 

• EU demands Fiat, Starbucks repay tax from sweetheart deals

• Leaked Luxembourg files expose global companies' secret deals to avoid tax

Last month, EU anti-trust regulators made their first decisions on low-tax deals, ordering Starbucks and Fiat Chrysler to pay tens of millions in taxes.

Before the end of the year there may be decisions in cases involving Apple Inc., which shifts its profits to Ireland in a special low-tax deal, and Amazon, which has a low-tax deal with Luxembourg.

The meeting of the European Parliament's special tax committee on Nov. 16 gives corporations a forum to defend their tax status and is separate from the anti-trust investigation.

It was arranged after a group of investigative journalists probed Luxembourg's secret fiscal deals and found hundreds of tax rulings with companies from around the world, from PepsiCo Inc. to Walt Disney Co.