Appointing another 2,500 tax inspectors won't make much difference to the way tax law is enforced either, if special settlements are negotiated with companies such as Vodafone and Starbucks, and with high-earning comedians and entertainers, whereas lower earners are ordered to pay every penny due, with no room for manoeuvre.
Because of that, tax experts say that the change announced on Tuesday will not make much difference to the amount of tax paid by Apple.
At the moment companies can batch country-by-country tax payments by region, making it hard for outsiders to identify which companies are rampant users of tax havens.It remains to be seen, however, whether any of this makes a meaningful difference to the amount of tax paid by companies.
Worst of all, it won't even make any real difference to the amount of tax that's paid in to the Treasury... Ed Balls's pledge to put the rate back up to 50p isn't about fairness.
The G8 leaders also called on multinationals to make a full disclosure to the taxman over how much tax they pay in different countries.It again remains to be seen whether any of this will make a meaningful difference to the amount of tax companies pay.
Action will be taken at the G8 summit to make "a real difference" to the amount of tax paid by corporations, David Cameron says.
Going the stock route makes no difference to the Mint, a tax-exempt entity based in New York City that incurs no taxes when it sells the shares and ends up with close to the same amount of money.
It does not make any difference to the way they pay tax on money made in the UK, or indeed to money made outside the UK and then brought into the country - that is all taxed in the same way it would be for anyone else.
Democrats said they would use the difference to pay for tax cuts, increased aid for education, health care and other programs.
