Multinational companies generating sizable revenue and profits have managed to avoid paying corporate taxes by taking advantage of loopholes in the present taxation system, a report said Thursday.

According to data provided by the National Tax Service to Rep. Lee Man-woo's office for the parliamentary audit, of the 9,532 foreign companies in the country, 4,752 paid zero corporate taxes in 2013.

Of those that did not pay, 15 may have had annual sales exceeding 1 trillion won ($839 million) and also made money, obliging them to pay business taxes, it said.

The NTS did not specify names, but the report insinuated that tech giants, such as Google, may possibly be among the big companies.

The lawmaker's office said that multinationals managed to avoid paying taxes by "transferring" local earnings abroad, claiming they had to pay intellectual property right royalties to overseas affiliates. Because these royalty payments are categorized as outlays, companies can reduce their actual earnings to levels that can exempt them from paying any corporate taxes.

The office said to deal with such problems, some European countries like Britain and Germany have introduced "Google tax" to block such transactions and allow national tax authorities to levy dues for profits generated.

"According to data provided by Korea Mobile Internet Business Association last year, Google's profits probably reached 2.3 trillion won, while Apple Inc.'s earnings hit 1.4 trillion won," the ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker said. Because many multinationals are non-listed limited companies, they do not have to report sales or earnings, so official data is lacking.

He said the government needs to come up with measures that can help it bypass existing tax agreements and dual taxation avoidance schemes so it can start levying taxes on profits generated in the country. (Yonhap)