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Apple Planning New UK Headquarters in London's Historic Battersea Power Station

IJ Reilly said:
Whether Britain is "part of Europe" depends so much on who you ask. I was living over there for awhile while the Channel Tunnel was under construction and heard lots of complaints about how it would destroy Britain's cherished status as an island separate and apart from the Continent. It's also difficult to read the Brexit vote as anything short of a repudiation of the concept of Britain being "part of Europe."
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No it doesn't, Europe is the group of country's in a geographical location, we are leaving the EU not moving The UK to another part of the planet!
 
TrueBlou said:
Said the person who admits he would pay as little tax as he could get away with.

And I take it your must be referring to the United Kingdom, because I'm British. I'm also not responsible for idiotic rulings by politicians, whom based on many of their exploits shouldn't really be trusted to run a country. Nor am I a xenophobic who would make broad sweeping statements against an entire country and the knowledge any individual within may have.

It's sad really, I personally don't care because as an individual I get none of the money you are referring to so none of this applies to me. Unless you count the higher than average tax I have to pay.

But if that's what fuels your fire perhaps you should do your research better. There is in fact another part of the United Kingdom that gets more per head from the UK taxman than Scotland does.
I'm also assuming therefore you're using typically biased figures [EDIT] to fall back on, rather than blindly ignoring the fact that the last government expenditure and revenue report showed Scotland had actually raised more revenue per head than the UK average.
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"Typically biased figures"? - House of Commons Briefing Paper 06625 Aug 2016 states "On a per head basis, revenue raised in Scotland is slightly below the UK average". N.Ireland did receive more per capita than Scotland but Scotland received FOURTY THREE % more per capita than the lowest spending region - so not much to complain about there then.
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RichTeer said:
You, and other people making similar statements really need to educate yourselves. Tax AVOIDANCE, which is what Apple et al are doing, is using legal means to lower one's tax obligations. It'd be like you and me deducting medical and tuition (and in some place, mortgage interest) expenses from our income to lower our tax burden. Apple is just doing this on a much grander scale.

Tax EVASION, which is the crime you are accusing et al of, is what one is guilty of if use illegal means to avoid paying tax, for example, not filing a tax return, or claiming expenses you didn't incur, etc.

Tim Cook isn't lying when he says Apple pays all the tax they're legally obliged to, but he also has a judiciary duty to Apple's shareholders to minimize Apple's tax burden as much as legally possible. In short: Apple is playing by the rules. Now, whether or not the rules are FAIR is another conversation (in other words: hate the game not the player). Just remember that most people who come up with these rules are very wealthy, so of course they're gonna include legal loopholes that don't really work for normal folk like you and me.
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I think you meant fiduciary duty, not judiciary.....please don't lecture if you can't get it right.

The fiduciary argument is crass and doesn't actually mean that a Director has some legal obligation to screw over suppliers, use cheap unregulated labour and avoid tax - it does mean they should act in the best interests of the shareholders. Getting caught in a globally reported controversy over paying tax and the ensuing potential reputation damage may or may not be in the best interests of the company. As with the banks post 2007 there is a strong moral argument in favour of doing what is patently right as opposed to maximising profits and to hell with the consequences.
 
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apolloa said:
No it doesn't, Europe is the group of country's in a geographical location, we are leaving the EU not moving The UK to another part of the planet!
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If you want to get geographically technical, Europe is the continent, to which the British Isles are not in fact attached.

In any case I am referring to cultural identification, not geography. I've spent enough time in the UK and talked to enough Brits to know that hardly all consider themselves or their country to be European. This may not be your view, and you may even be embarrassed by that view when it is expressed by your fellow Britons, but I'm sure you know exactly what I am talking about even if you choose to not admit it.
 
foobarbaz said:
Among other things, Apple London is used as a sort of holding place for EU workers waiting for their US visa. That probably won't work once Brexit becomes official (given that Free Movement is one of the main things UK voters didn't like).
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Well, USA doesn't look very attractive for EU citizens at the moment.
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apolloa said:
No it doesn't, Europe is the group of country's in a geographical location, we are leaving the EU not moving The UK to another part of the planet!
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Although France and Germany probably wouldn't mind if you did.
 
IJ Reilly said:
If you want to get geographically technical, Europe is the continent, to which the British Isles are not in fact attached.

In any case I am referring to cultural identification, not geography. I've spent enough time in the UK and talked to enough Brits to know that hardly all consider themselves or their country to be European. This may not be your view, and you may even be embarrassed by that view when it is expressed by your fellow Britons, but I'm sure you know exactly what I am talking about even if you choose to not admit it.
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Agree with you on that one! I'm surprised none of the museums wanted the space. Seems a shame for such a classic building to be wasted on a corporations HQ.
 
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Spendlove said:
Well I am shocked. I didn't think a reputable company would touch this dump of a country with a bargepole after the retards in the UK voted to leave Europe.
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Yeah, but only 51% of the UK were retards. Come November here in the US, it won't matter which way you vote!
 
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TrueBlou said:
Aye true enough, there is that.
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Aye, but he said lure it over here. He never said anything about keeping it EU. Of course then they'd need a new EU headquarters, maybe a p.o box in Switzerland.
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Switzerland isn't in the EU, so that wouldn't solve the problem.
 
vmistery said:
Well you never know, with Brexit and Ireland having to ask for more tax perhaps they can move their entire EU headquaters over here in a few years time..
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Ok what understandably the average macrumors poster would not know and also seems to have been kept from the Irish public. This property was owned and sold by the Irish government over two years ago.

It was done via NAMA (National Asset Management Agency) an entity created by the Irish Government not long after the Irish Banking system came to the point of total collapse september 2008. NAMA has the largest property portfolio in the world by value I think.

It was tasked to take the assets off the balance sheets of the utterly bust banks. The Irish Government took the loans worth lets say 30c in the Euro, paid 70c in the euro and also provide 30c in capital to cover the final shortfall to the banks. Nice.

Irish taxpayers have had to spend tens of billions bailing out it's insolvent and totally corrupt regime of banks. No one knows what goes on in NAMA truly, it is suspected it's probably one giant fraud.

More here - http://www.thepropertypin.com/viewtopic.php?p=892592#p892592
 
machpost said:
That's the power plant on the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals...

Pink_Floyd-Animals-Frontal.jpg
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That's one of my favorite Pink Floyd covers. Tori Amos filmed her "Talula" video inside Battersea Power Station as well.

Let's just hope Apple doesn't ruin it somehow (like with a big Apple logo on it). I would like to see the landmark preserved as it's iconic.
 
akac said:
They didn't choose London - they already had many offices in London. This is consolidating them into one building.
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They could have chosen to consolidate somewhere else outside London.
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RichTeer said:
You, and other people making similar statements really need to educate yourselves. Tax AVOIDANCE, which is what Apple et al are doing, is using legal means to lower one's tax obligations. It'd be like you and me deducting medical and tuition (and in some place, mortgage interest) expenses from our income to lower our tax burden. Apple is just doing this on a much grander scale.

Tax EVASION, which is the crime you are accusing et al of, is what one is guilty of if use illegal means to avoid paying tax, for example, not filing a tax return, or claiming expenses you didn't incur, etc.

Tim Cook isn't lying when he says Apple pays all the tax they're legally obliged to, but he also has a judiciary duty to Apple's shareholders to minimize Apple's tax burden as much as legally possible. In short: Apple is playing by the rules. Now, whether or not the rules are FAIR is another conversation (in other words: hate the game not the player). Just remember that most people who come up with these rules are very wealthy, so of course they're gonna include legal loopholes that don't really work for normal folk like you and me.
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It clearly wasn't legal if they're being fined $14bn by EU regulators.
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Spendlove said:
Well I am shocked. I didn't think a reputable company would touch this dump of a country with a bargepole after the retards in the UK voted to leave Europe.
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We voted to leave the EU not leave Europe. Clearly there are a few "retards" in the remain camp.
 
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2ilent8cho said:
They voted to leave the EU, not move continent, we will still be part of Europe.
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You know very well what I meant....
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virginblue4 said:
Someone doesn't share your opinion and it makes them a retard?
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Okay, "mislead". But still on the lower end of the intelligence scale to not figure out they were being lied to.
 
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btrach144 said:
but but I thought Brexit was going to make everyone leave. You mean companies are actually looking to move and reaffirm their position in Britain? Whhaaaaaaat?:eek:
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It doesn't mean that at all. Most likely this is a cost cutting exercise. I would suspect that by consolidating all the London offices into one new location, Apple has been able to negotiate a nice lease as a first tenant at a location that has been struggling to decide what to do with itself since the power station was decommissioned.
 
Spendlove said:
Well I am shocked. I didn't think a reputable company would touch this dump of a country with a bargepole after the retards in the UK voted to leave Europe.
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Oh do please change the record. It is so boring. I am no great fan of Brexit, but I can see pros and cons and at least a balanced argument. What is done is done in any case. British people who keep carping about how disastrous it all is just contribute to a loss of confidence and cause further damage. Boring, boring, and destructive.
 
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