ING Direct offer Applepay and absorb the costs, go figure. They also put actual interest that means something and don't charge for me using any ATM, so long as I have a minimum deposited into my account per month. It's a case of the 3 of the 4 big banks trying to cry foul.
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Australian Consumer Watchdog to Question Apple Over Westpac Chat App Payments Ban
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ING Direct offer Applepay and absorb the costs, go figure. They also put actual interest that means something and don't charge for me using any ATM, so long as I have a minimum deposited into my account per month. It's a case of the 3 of the 4 big banks trying to cry foul.
Australian companies complaining about anti-competitive behaviour is pure hypocrisy.
The retail industry here needs to die a quick death, I can't wait for Amazon to come here.
The retail industry here needs to die a quick death, I can't wait for Amazon to come here.
Yep, the same as Apple complaining about high royalties.
One difference in this case is who benefits Australians more.
For example, in 2013 ANZ Bank made about AUS $6 billion in revenues, upon which they paid about $2 billion in Australian taxes... about 30%.
In 2013, Apple also made about $6 billion in Australia, but they paid less than $40 million in taxes (< 1%) because of their clever offshoring accounting tricks. Almost all of the rest of the money left Australia.
As much as I love shopping via Amazon, be careful for what you wish.
Now that we all shop Amazon here, real stores are disappearing right and left.
It started with the book stores, where we used to spend happy Sunday afternoons with our young daughter. They're mostly gone now. So are clothing and sports stores, electronics shops, and many malls.
This! I've seen lots of people celebrating the fact that Amazon is coming to Australia, but retail stores and shopping centres are also big employers. While it's satisfying to think of stores like Harvey Norman being given a kick up the butt, lots of local jobs are going to disappear.
At least with the banks there's plenty of choice (even if their offerings are often extremely similar) and can therefore decide to, for example, get a card from ANZ for Apple Pay. With Amazon it'll likely result in fewer choices and fewer local options. Perhaps it may improve the performance of some of Australia's parcel delivery services though...!
Just so we are clear here, Apple is not doing anything illegal or sinister here. Why make them look like the villain?
I didn't say Apple was doing anything illegal or sinister. YOU are the one intimating that. Why would you do so?
The banks aren't villians either, if you support a business wanting to maximize its profits.
I do think it's interesting that some Australians would rather support an American corporation's greed over the greed of their own native businesses
Your comparison draws that conclusion. I merely stated the obvious.
Well, the soul purpose for any business to exist is just that, making profit.
I do think it's interesting that some Australians would rather support an American corporation's greed over the greed of their own native businesses
It doesn't make much of a difference either way and I think calling it "greed" is unfair. They aren't multi billion dollar companies just doing charity.
Only to someone who thinks that creating shell companies to avoid paying taxes is illegal or sinister. I called it a clever trick.
Actually, no it's not the sole purpose, and courts have ruled that it's not. Companies can also emphasize community and employees, for instance.
The point of many posts is that banks are greedy. If so, then Apple with its quarter trillion in stashed away profits qualifies as well.
Neither one are angels
While it’s not illegal it obviously should be in the interest of every Australian to have that tax money instead of not having it. It definitely would be in the best interest of the society to not have a company take out that much money of the country and not pay tax.
Now if only there were a body that could introduce different taxation laws... a body that would govern this stuff... a government, if you will
As is always the case in these situations, companies only pay the tax they're required to by law and the government could change the laws but doesn't. That said, companies also pay a lot of taxes indirectly via employment (income tax), which means the amount they're generating for the government coffers is substantially more than their company tax would suggest.
But this is all very off topic now. The ACCC will do their investigation and then we'll see why Apple rejected Westpac's cash-transfer-via-keyboard app (who knows, it might even be to comply with some obscure banking regulation in Aus - wouldn't be the first time!).
As is always the case in these situations, companies only pay the tax they're required to by law and the government could change the laws but doesn't. That said, companies also pay a lot of taxes indirectly via employment (income tax), which means the amount they're generating for the government coffers is substantially more than their company tax would suggest.
But this is all very off topic now. The ACCC will do their investigation and then we'll see why Apple rejected Westpac's cash-transfer-via-keyboard app (who knows, it might even be to comply with some obscure banking regulation in Aus - wouldn't be the first time!).
Now if only there were a body that could introduce different taxation laws... a body that would govern this stuff... a government, if you will
As is always the case in these situations, companies only pay the tax they're required to by law and the government could change the laws but doesn't. That said, companies also pay a lot of taxes indirectly via employment (income tax), which means the amount they're generating for the government coffers is substantially more than their company tax would suggest.
But this is all very off topic now. The ACCC will do their investigation and then we'll see why Apple rejected Westpac's cash-transfer-via-keyboard app (who knows, it might even be to comply with some obscure banking regulation in Aus - wouldn't be the first time!).
Haha yes, I agree. Apple is especially dodgy when it comes to paying taxes anywhere though. Don't get me wrong though - I do like Apple products a lot. I do however see it very critical that apple is forcing banks to give up all their customer data to be able to use a well established technology but on a phone. While in earlier days Apple was driving innovation I think it looks more and more like they are trying to block it using their market power. So I actually do hope some govt forces them to open their NFC technology to other parties.
The banks aren't giving up any data by using Apple Pay. They still see everything about the transaction that they would normally with a credit card transaction. This seems to be a common misunderstanding about how Apple Pay works. The better privacy aspect is that the merchant/terminal can't see the real card number.
The reason Apple wants banks to use Apple Pay instead of having direct access to the NFC chip and implementing their own wallet systems is that it wouldn't be as good of an experience as Apple Pay. If you've used a bank's custom wallet app on Android you know what a terrible experience it can be - always more cumbersome than Apple Pay, and you're relying on the bank's dev team to make a good app (which, like with airlines, if the Australian banks are anything to go by, you're going to be in for a bad time). It'll just be another opportunity for the bank to take over more of the experience in ways that make it worse.
As a regular user of Apple Pay I'd hate to think of what would happen if banks had direct access to make their own NFC payment apps. They'd pull out of Apple Pay and implement their own apps that would be obnoxious, clunky, less convenient and more invasive. Apple Pay is as low friction and convenient as you can make a payment system, especially if you have an Apple Watch (and even more so in Japan with the Express Transit Card function of Apple Pay - although the Suica app is another good example of why you shouldn't let card companies into the mix, ha) - let's not spoil a good thing!