Apple faces bill of billions over its Irish tax affairs after EU ruling The European Commission's three-year investigation into Apple's sweetheart deal with Ireland has found it amounted to illegal state aid.Commentsview comments in forum Page 1 2 You need to be a member of CKA and be logged into the site, to comment on news. |
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And the Irish don't want the money.
Ireland is pissed and the Dail is now talking about leaving the EU.
The US Treasury Department had previously warned the EU about issuing ex post facto decisions against US companies and now both Treasury and Commerce are preparing retaliatory moves against the EU. Which is correct given that Apple obeyed Irish law according to the Irish government. The EU is simply trying to impose its authority on Ireland and its using Apple as a pawn.
Look for the EU to get a slap down.
Good.
Which is correct given that Apple obeyed Irish law according to the Irish government. The EU is simply trying to impose its authority on Ireland and its using Apple as a pawn.
Ummm, no.
Chapter 1 paragragh 1 clause 1 states EU law is always the supreme law over anything
any member country produces.
Apple ran a simple scam, but now the EU needs money. Lots of money.
It also needs to establish supremacy, to show the other members not to walk away
from the EU.
I just find it hilarious the Irish are fighting the decision.
It's obvious someone in Ireland got paid off quite well.
That money would fund their 'free' health service for a year,
2400 pounds person.
This alone is proof positive something very fishy going on.
I just find it hilarious the Irish are fighting the decision.
They're just having a spirited discussion right now. will come when the EU shows up in Dublin to force the issue.
The European Commission's issue is really not with Apple but with Ireland.
Aid versus tax
How's this for a tricky balancing act?
EU leaders have no issue with different member nations charging different corporate-tax rates. That's why it's acceptable for Ireland to charge businesses a 12.5% income tax whereas France levies 33.3%.
The European Commission released this infographic showing how Apple paid virtually no taxes through its Irish companies.European Commission
This is crucial because nations want to maintain autonomy over their fiscal policies. That's part of the ongoing power struggle between individual nations and the EU (remember Brexit?). What's not acceptable is what the EU calls "state aid." This is when a country offers something special that's seen as benefiting an individual company.
It can be even more basic. If France taxed companies in the north less than those in the south, that's generally state aid in the EU's view. It's the same with trying to get a German company to move to Denmark by abating property taxes for a new headquarters.
"The view is that not levying taxes that everyone else has to pay amounts to the same result as giving money to just one company," Philipp Werner, a partner in the law firm Jones Day's Brussels office who has represented multinational companies appealing state-aid decisions, told Business Insider.
If Apple had just paid the standard 12.5% income tax in Ireland, the country wouldn't have EU leaders upset in Brussels. Instead, the commission says Ireland gave Apple "selective tax treatment" starting in 1991, with the first of two tax rulings. In effect, Ireland signed off on a plan in which Apple would move money to a stateless "head office" with no meaningful activities.
"Therefore, only a small percentage of Apple Sales International's profits were taxed in Ireland, and the rest was taxed nowhere," the commission said in a press release.
Ireland explicitly said this was fine by its standards. But the EU contends that this arrangement "gave Apple an undue advantage that is illegal under EU state aid rules."
"Apple entered into a deal with Ireland to not pay tax on all those profits," Edward Kleinbard, a professor of law and business at the USC Gould School of Law, told Business Insider. Instead, Apple paid "an arbitrarily small amount to Ireland in return for a vague promise to keep jobs in Ireland."
Apple and Ireland aren't the commission's first targets. There were similar rulings against the Starbucks' tax dealings in the Netherlands and a division of Fiat in Luxembourg.
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-jus ... ned-2016-8
Apple is quietly threatening that they'll have to lay off all 22,000 employees in the EU in order to make the lump sum tax payment.
Apple is quietly threatening that they'll have to lay off all 22,000 employees in the EU in order to make the lump sum tax payment.
Which is a really pathetic threat, and not much else. Remember the money
is all European sales where the tax was never paid.
They easily have the money buried offshore.
It's not capitalism, it's corporatism gone really ugly.
This becomes one of those situations where the EU might actually be useful.
If it was me:
Pay the fine and shut up.
No jobs in EU, hmm, no product sales for you either then. Bye bye !
Apple is quietly threatening that they'll have to lay off all 22,000 employees in the EU in order to make the lump sum tax payment.
Which is a really pathetic threat, and not much else. Remember the money
is all European sales where the tax was never paid.
They easily have the money buried offshore.
It's not capitalism, it's corporatism gone really ugly.
This becomes one of those situations where the EU might actually be useful.
If it was me:
Pay the fine and shut up.
No jobs in EU, hmm, no product sales for you either then. Bye bye !Not really. Once the TPP is signed, they won't be able refuse Apple product sales in Europe, if they even can now. While I despise Apple, I'm seriously hoping they bitch slap the EU real good. The EU needs to be taken down a few pegs with their constant interference in the affairs of sovereign countries. I don't think it'll be much longer before the whole rotten house of cards comes crashing down.
The EU needs to be taken down a few pegs with their constant interference in the affairs of sovereign countries. I don't think it'll be much longer before the whole rotten house of cards comes crashing down.
The countries aren't sovereign, they haven't been for a long time.
And that is the problem.
While I despise Apple, I'm seriously hoping they bitch slap the EU real good. The EU needs to be taken down a few pegs with their constant interference in the affairs of sovereign countries. I don't think it'll be much longer before the whole rotten house of cards comes crashing down.
You think TPP would allow this? This isn't interfering in the "sovereign affairs of w country". Apple is conducting operations across multiple countries in a trade zone, while secretly colluding with one of the countries in a tax evasion scheme in exchange for basing its jobs in that country. That's not fair to any of the countries involved in that trading zone and in fact secret backroom deals like this are a big part of why trade zones and economic unions exist in the first place.
Ireland is fighting it because they're accused of conspiring with Apple.
Ireland is fighting because companies like Google, Dell, Amazon, Twitter, IBM and Facebook have all set up HQs in Ireland in order to dodge other EU countries high taxes.
http://www.top1000.ie/industries/technology