E.U. to Take Ireland to Court For Failing to Claim Apple Tax

[LordVic]

IIRC, to be a member in the EU, you agree upon certain monetary policies. One of which is no government in the EU will make special arrangements regarding taxation policies to any individual or organization.

the EU Contends that the current agreement between ireland and Apple amount to a special tax deal between them to circumvent the proper taxation of Apple's profits as recorded in the EU/Ireland.

judging by how much tax Apple actually paid. the EU isn't necessarily wrong that Apple is paying significantly less tax than the standard rates. This means you have to ask was the arrangement "special" just for Apple. or does Ireland honour the same deal to other corporations and people?

 

[Kaibelf]

Did Tim really say "total crap"? that's no language for one of the world's most important companies.

Lol can you begin to imagine what Steve Jobs would have said then?

 

[Plutonius]

Did Tim really say "total crap"? that's no language for one of the world's most important companies.

Is "total crap" considered racist ?

 

[Jsameds]

IIRC, to be a member in the EU, you agree upon certain monetary policies. One of which is no government in the EU will make special arrangements regarding taxation policies to any individual or organization.

the EU Contends that the current agreement between ireland and Apple amount to a special tax deal between them to circumvent the proper taxation of Apple's profits as recorded in the EU/Ireland.

judging by how much tax Apple actually paid. the EU isn't necessarily wrong that Apple is paying significantly less tax than the standard rates. This means you have to ask was the arrangement "special" just for Apple. or does Ireland honour the same deal to other corporations and people?

Abbott Laboratories
Adobe Systems
Airbnb
Eli Lilly and Company
Facebook
Forest Laboratories
General Electric
Google
IBM
Johnson & Johnson
Medtronic Inc.
Microsoft
Oracle Corp.
Pfizer Inc.
Starbucks
Yahoo!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement#Companies_using_the_arrangement

 

[Kaibelf]

About time! Apple paying down to 0.005% taxes on income in Europe is absolutely ridiculous, especially in these times where a select few companies are creating near international monopolies, and pushing out national and local businesses which used to pay their fair share of the tax burden.

1. That’s between the EU and Ireland. Ireland set up the deal and kept it going without complaints.

2. Name the local Irish small business that Apple “pushed out” in the smartphone space?

 

[Mac32]

Apple goes out of its way to portray itself as progressive, compassionate, and the champion of the disadvantaged, but they sure don't want to give up penny of profit.

In other words, typical leftwing liberal hypocrisy. Another good example is Al Gore, who is travelling around the world in his private jet prophesizing the end of the world "because of CO2" (while making highly exaggerated claims like the entire Arctic will melt away during summer from ca. 2015). At the same time his CO2-tax corporation (Gore & Blood) process CO2-taxes while taking a percentage, making a fortune for himself.

 

[alfonsog]

My friend had a legal dispute over inherited property in Ireland and it took years to resolve and numerous trips because her Uncle claimed the property as he had animals on it. The court system there is horrible and nothing like USA; everything takes forever. This will take years to resolve.

 

[samh004]

No company should be allowed to pay minimal tax, even if they’ve found some seedy loophole.

I agree there shouldn’t be loopholes, but that’s for the legislators to fix. Governments all around the world leave the holes for big businesses to use. Companies shouldn’t be penalised because the government failed to do their job.

On another note, this and many other reasons is why the UK left. I wonder who will wake up to the sad reality the EU has become next?

 

[MjWoNeR]

But EU is trying to extract $ from US taxpayers to pay for socialist and insolvent countries like France, Portugal, Greece, Italy and others.

You really believe that the ones in charge of EU just hand out money to poor member states? Oh my.

I think if you want to see where the money goes you should stop pointing at the poor, and look instead at who is getting richer.

 

[giggles]

On another note, this and many other reasons is why the UK left. I wonder who will wake up to the sad reality the EU has become next?

 

[_Kiki_]

My friend had a legal dispute over inherited property in Ireland and it took years to resolve and numerous trips because her Uncle claimed the property as he had animals on it. The court system there is horrible and nothing like USA; everything takes forever. This will take years to resolve.

There is an European Union Court and EU don't need deal with local Irish Courts

 

[coolfactor]

Apple goes out of its way to portray itself as progressive, compassionate, and the champion of the disadvantaged, but they sure don't want to give up penny of profit.

I think the issue is more complex than that. Tax rates, especially *corporate* tax rates, have become insanely high in some places, such as the US. Any effort to minimize that, legally, really helps. Apple was using a legal loophole in Ireland. It was legal. E.U. changed the rules and wants *back taxes* to be paid. That's just wrong.

 

[brianvictor7]

As the article says the existing law was broken. So no need to change the law.

But yes they should be much faster getting those multi billion dollars.

Why do u even think that it's good to leave Apple untouched there? They made so much money and just getting lazy and slow with updates or inventions. Good example is the 4year old design of the iPhone 8

The commission "claims" that the law was broken, yet somehow it took them 2 1/2 decades to decide this. That smells wrong on so many levels, as though the judges decided to reinterpret something to suit their own purposes (though that is not for me to investigate).

Actually, I'm not particularly happy with Apple keeping the money there, but I simply don't buy the EU's notion that they did something legally wrong. Like I indicated, there is a proper way to change things and finding some commission to reinterpret the law is not the way. Now, to fair, I suppose it took until the commission before anyone correctly interpreted the law, but that is stretching my credulity quite far.

 

[sunny2k1]

I agree there shouldn’t be loopholes, but that’s for the legislators to fix. Governments all around the world leave the holes for big businesses to use. Companies shouldn’t be penalised because the government failed to do their job.

The problem here is, that Ireland has no interest to fix the loopholes. That and the fact, that Ireland was saved by the euro rescue package (85 billion euros) could make the other member states of the euro zone / EU angry.

They created a competitive advantage on the cost of the other Euro Members. I was living in Germany before leaving to Canada and was understandably unhappy that I had to subsidize (indirect) the Irish Tax presents to the big Players.

 

[TechZeke]

Apple goes out of its way to portray itself as progressive, compassionate, and the champion of the disadvantaged, but they sure don't want to give up penny of profit.

Apple is a company out make money like every other company. They wouldn’t be so rich now if that wasn’t the case.
[doublepost=1507128380][/doublepost]

Well done to the EU.

And to the poster above, ROI does not want out of the EU. It has benefited massively from investments by the EU.

No company should be allowed to pay minimal tax, even if they’ve found some seedy loophole.

lol wut? “No company should be allowed to pay minimal tax...”

Isn’t it the goal of all companies and individuals to legally pay minimal taxes? Do you donate extra taxes to the government just because?

 

[macTW]

And this is (part of) why the EU is garbage.

 

[itsmilo]

Now if i am late to pay 10€ all hell breaks loose on the other hand

 

[miniyou64]

Well done to the EU.

And to the poster above, ROI does not want out of the EU. It has benefited massively from investments by the EU.

No company should be allowed to pay minimal tax, even if they’ve found some seedy loophole.

Ugh. Socialism is so gross.

 

[FrenchRoasted]

Foreigners coming to Europe to steal our money don't arrive on boats through the mediterranean, the arrive on jet airplanes. No joke, they just cost much more.

There's so much wrong with this. Your money? Did someone paid by Apple break into your house and steal from you? It's the State that steals from you and you're cheering them all the way to the poor house. Sad.

 

[rafark]

Lol can you begin to imagine what Steve Jobs would have said then?

Fair enough. Lol

 

[sunny2k1]

Meanwhile in Luxembourg: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41484025

It looks like, that this is not Apple specific. the EU also has their eyes on other big companies as well resp. illegal state aids to resident big international players..

 

[dogslobber]

The EU needs to find a pot of money quick with the UK leaving

The UK will contribute plenty to participate in the single market with no say on anything anymore. Maybe they'll end up contributing more than the $350m per day Boris says they do today.

 

[sunny2k1]

The EU needs to find a pot of money quick with the UK leaving

You have absolutely no idea what the Brexit might mean for the UK. No access to Single Market. Under the hand, a lot of Europeans are not sad, that the British (with all their Extras) are leaving. The consequences are more severe for the UK (Access to the Single Market, Border NI/Ireland only to name two).

London will be unattractive as financial market, as all big bank need a European Banking license which you only get if your European HQ is within the EU...

 

[dogslobber]

Under the hand, a lot of Europeans are not sad, that the British (with all their Extras) are leaving.

de Gaulle was right all along but his successor was weak-kneed. Viva La France!

 

[bsolar]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement#Companies_using_the_arrangement

Did you even read the EU decision? Emphasis mine:

The present decision concerns rulings on profit allocation to branches granted by Irish Revenue in 1991 and 2007 in favour of AOE and ASI (referred to collectively as “the contested rulings” and separately as “the 1991 ruling” and “the 2007 ruling” )

the Commission is of the opinion that the contested rulings do not comply with the arm’s length principle. Accordingly, the Commission is of the opinion that through those rulings the Irish authorities confer an advantage on Apple. That advantage is obtained every year and on-going, when the annual tax liability is agreed upon by the tax authorities in view of that ruling.

That advantage is also granted in a selective manner. While rulings that merely contain an interpretation of the relevant tax provisions without deviating from administrative practice do not give rise to a presumption of a selective advantage, rulings that deviate from that practice have the effect of lowering the tax burden of the undertakings concerned as compared to undertakings in a similar legal and factual situation. To the extent the Irish authorities have deviated from the arm’s length principle as regards Apple, the contested rulings should also be considered selective.

The decision is not about the generic Double Irish arrangement, it's explicitly about individual tax rulings granted by Ireland to Apple Operations Europe (AOE) and Apple Sales International (ASI), giving a specific selective advantage compared to other companies.