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This is a deal Ireland has made for Apple - not Apple making a massive tax fraud. EU is interfering with the individual country tax system (to be honest I'm not in the details) which sounds a lot like many of the reasons The UK voted out.

Nobody should cheat, but this sounds like it isn't on Apple (get presented with a good deal by a country and accepting it isn't a crime) but more like the country it self
I agree, a company, like any individual, wil always choose the best option available to them. It is morally bereft but that doesn't really seem to matter in business.

The onus however is on the Irish Government who have a long history of this kind of deal and only in recent years began to reduce them due to increasing ire drawn from other EU states.
 
Their argument is that they would have paid taxes on it eventually when they brought it home after they negotiated a deal with the US government on a low corporate tax rate.

I'm not a tax expert, but when Tim Cook says that it sounds to me like someone burying their income in their backyard and saying they'll pay their taxes when the government comes down on the tax rate that everyone else is already paying.

The assumption that this money was ever going anywhere shouldn't play a role in how it's treated. Tim Cook said it's coming home when a corporate tax change occurs that has not occurred ever. So, it's basically just European corporate income.

And you could give a company the benefit of the doubt, but when their own CFO had to resign after being investigated by the SEC and Steve Jobs was found backdating stock options but wasn't found guilty of criminal activity because he "didn't know what he was doing". . . Steve Jobs is thought to have been the singular investor that nearly brought Apple to the brink by selling all his Apple shares at once in 1997 in order to oust Gil Amelio. Someone that clever knows what he's doing when he dates a stock option.
 
Funnily enough, Ireland themselves are appealing the ruling. They want the big companies there paying little to no tax, because 1% of something is better than 100% of nothing (plus all the jobs Apple brings to Ireland) - Ireland quite likes being a tax haven for big business.
And who's money are they using to fund this appeal I wonder?

The tax payers...
 
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This has been well overdue, but it does leave a sour-taste knowing that Apple, essentially, had to grow its empire to the current state before a move by the EU was ever made. This is a big fault on the EU's part for viewing this situation as an opportunity for Apple to part with cash, but I suppose better late than never.

Tax reliefs are more often than not a response to bullying tactics, which in this case is obvious as Apple knows how important their business is to Ireland's economy.

Apple will of course appeal and spew the usual "we pay every dollar we owe" - a way of side-stepping the original topic. Yes, they do and have paid every dollar owed, but it is the original fee that is put into question.

I should also point out that Apple loves to take the high-ground on any subject that may cause controversy. Cook's repeated plea that Apple "wants to leave the world a better place" is interesting, given he accepted a tax rate of 0.005%. If he cared so much for those who contribute to the company's operations and success, he would willingly up the percentage to a more admirable number, and/or indeed contribute more to Apple's operations outside of a doughnut in California.

With the tens of billions they have tucked away (I don't recall the number), they're not fooling anyone.
 
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This is a deal Ireland has made for Apple - not Apple making a massive tax fraud. EU is interfering with the individual country tax system (to be honest I'm not in the details) which sounds a lot like many of the reasons The UK voted out.

Nobody should cheat, but this sounds like it isn't on Apple (get presented with a good deal by a country and accepting it isn't a crime) but more like the country it self

Just like any tax avoidance, the deal always sounds great ;) and is always legal and legit....until investigated ...
 
I can't help but feel that if Apple weren't making hand-over-fist profits every quarter and have a ludicrous amount of stockpiled money, then maybe they wouldn't have been such a high priority.

As much as I love Apple products, they make my job hell when somebody pays a ludicrous amount for a Mac and wonders why it performs like crap due having a spinning drive. Apologising for that, or explaining that they didn't quite pay enough towards their "we don't ship junk" Mac, I can't stop thinking about the amount of cash Apple are sitting on, and just wish they made all their products consistently good.

Hopefully this'll give them a wake up call. No point stockpiling that amount of money as you'll end up eventually being targeted. Who knows; if they had put a load of that money back into the products, and hadn't been sitting on so much cash, then they may not have been targeted in the first place. But again, that's just conjecture.
 
So is this $14.5bn that ultimately should've been paid to the US treasury but Apple channeled through Ireland in order to pay less tax?
 
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While I think it's completely wrong for Apple to skip taxes, they're hardly alone with getting this treatment. Intel, Dell and I'm sure others as well, have received similar deals in the past.
 
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This is a deal Ireland has made for Apple - not Apple making a massive tax fraud. EU is interfering with the individual country tax system (to be honest I'm not in the details) which sounds a lot like many of the reasons The UK voted out.

Nobody should cheat, but this sounds like it isn't on Apple (get presented with a good deal by a country and accepting it isn't a crime) but more like the country it self

I am not an expert either, but I think the ruling was based on the logic that Ireland's tax deal with Apple amounted to a state subsidy. If Ireland is allowed to give state subsidies to companies, then that creates an unfair advantage over other EU countries. You're right in that Apple was complying with Ireland law, but I doubt that either Apple or the government of Ireland failed to understand this arrangement would be questioned. They adjusted the tax break to push the envelope – a risky decision – and they got burned.

As I have said in other posts, I Hope the UK gets its share before Brexit (indirectly since Ireland will need less EU subsidy now they have this influx of cash). In any case, I look forward to the second rate services (Maps, Siri, etc.) that Apple will provide in Europe as a consequence of this ruling. Mind you, Apple's services to Europe always lags that provided to the US anyway, in spite of Apple's R&D supposedly being performed by an EU company in Ireland.
 
Apple took a great offer from Ireland . So Ireland needs a huge share of blame here...huge.

From apples point of view...0.005%.... Come on, drop the BS , if any of paid that much tax we would know we are guilty as, Even if we could say in a straight face that it's legal....

Id be actually okay if were not for the fact Apple punishes me each time the US dollar goes up and my Apple products go up in price. If I have to pay to keep apples profit intact, they can pay thier damn taxes! I have to !!
 
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0.005% Corporate Tax paid, people. This is utterly disgraceful, a slap in the face to anyone who has ever paid taxes.

Just to put it in comparison. If Apple made 100,000 dollars a day, they paid only $5 in tax. So for every million dollars, they paid $50 in taxes. The largest corporation in the world, with billions in cash, with all manufacturing in cheaply China... and they are also the ones to pay the least. Imagine if you and I paid 0.005% in taxes. Except my taxes are closer to 40% these days.

Allow me to highlight that this is not a fine, but a repayment -- Apple is asked to pay back what it saved by having this favourable treatment from the Irish government. There is no fine.

Disgusting and obscene.

EDIT: Take a look at the EU Commission's infographic here http://ec.europa.eu/competition/publications/infographics/2016_07_en.pdf
 
I wonder how deep those pockets are for Apple. My guess is not deep enough. Keep digging.
 
This is a deal Ireland has made for Apple - not Apple making a massive tax fraud. EU is interfering with the individual country tax system (to be honest I'm not in the details) which sounds a lot like many of the reasons The UK voted out.

Nobody should cheat, but this sounds like it isn't on Apple (get presented with a good deal by a country and accepting it isn't a crime) but more like the country it self
Apple's tax evasion (which is legal) in cooperation with Ireland has apparently been so extreme it is illegal according to EU rules. Apple's reply is telling: they state it is 'legal' but they don't say they paid any normal amount of taxes. 2% (or even 0.001%) is clearly an attempt to pay taxes at all. EU rules are weak enough as it is, but they should indeed protect the citizens of Europa that companies play individual states against one other to dodge taxes.

I hope to see much more of this. Tax evasion is a world wide problem that is bad for democracy and for society and Apple can work a lot on their image as being 'good', but as long as they evade taxes at this scale, they're morally in the red. Companies operate across borders to evade taxes, so taxes should operate across borders as well. The EU is a big enough player that it can actually do something about it.
 
So is this $14.5bn that ultimately should've been paid to the US treasury but Apple channeled through Ireland in order to pay less tax?

This is on European sales. I think Apple has been putting aside the difference between 2% tax and 12.5% tax for years now, in case this happened.
 
Apples response has to be one of the worst most arrogant selfish ignorant screw you responses of any corporation! 500 dollars tax on 1 million dollars profit!!!!

Take them to the cleaners and all the other corporations doing it, the US administration can just shut up as they had their chance to change things but so far have refused to, so don't go crying wolf when someone else cleans the mess of capitalism up!
 
Apple not only did this, but they entered into an agreement to not hire employees from other tech companies so as to not raised wages.

Apple supports Hillary for good reason. Hillary will give them all the H1B Visas.

Buffett also supports Hillary and look what he did with Kraft foods. They let go thousands of American workers and Buffett made a bundle off the deal.

It's hard to imagine that Hillary is bought off by these people and says she's for the middle class. Apple should just add in the tax rate to the price of the product.

These other nations need to be more competitive in their tax rates so that it's not so harsh.

The Dems love Apple and Buffett, yet look what they do to their workers, don't see many talking about this in the media. People need to wake up.
 
Apples response has to be one of the worst most arrogant selfish ignorant screw you responses of any corporation! 500 dollars tax on 1 million dollars profit!!!!

Take them to the cleaners and all the other corporations doing it, the US administration can just shut up as they had their chance to change things but so far have refused to, so don't go crying wolf when someone else cleans the mess of capitalism up!
I wouldn't blame capitalism, I'd blame corruption and governments.
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So is this $14.5bn that ultimately should've been paid to the US treasury but Apple channeled through Ireland in order to pay less tax?
I don't think so, this would be EU sales. The US tries to double tax companies for outside sales. US is the only one that does that. The double taxation is another issue.
 
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