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In other news: The EU council is baffled why Ireland is proposing to pull out of the EU. Local businesses support proposal.
As somebody who lives in Ireland, I can assure you Ireland is proposing no such thing. Well over 80% of Irish people (and 99% of Irish students) want Ireland to remain in the EU, at last count.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0509/873610-eu_poll/
 
“...the lower end 0.005 percent tax rate...”

Is this right?

0.00005 x anything is like a rounding error. It is essentially zero. (Eg this rate on 120G$ is like 6M$. Thats some ridiculous forbearance on Ireland’s part in order to get jobs. That’s some major tax avoidance on apples part.)

Are we sure it isn’t 0.5% ? This is still bad but not like zero. (almost reaches a billion on the example amount as well - still ridiculously low rate.)
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Amazon already struck their deal with Luxembourg, although they're getting hit now too. Something like 75% tax savings lol.

This scheme should be outlawed, after banning inversions, and the taxes clawed back, with interest, spread over maybe 1.5 times the period under which the individual company used this scheme.
 
"We will study the Commission's ruling and consider our legal options, including an appeal," an Amazon spokesperson said.
Maybe I missed something here, but why is an Amazon spokesperson saying anything about this incident? I see nothing else that would indicate they are involved in any shape or form, this seems to be between Apple, Ireland and the E.U.
 
“...the lower end 0.005 percent tax rate...”

Is this right?

0.00005 x anything is like a rounding error. It is essentially zero. (Eg this rate on 120G$ is like 6M$. Thats some ridiculous forbearance on Ireland’s part in order to get jobs. That’s some major tax avoidance on apples part.)

Are we sure it isn’t 0.5% ? This is still bad but not like zero. (almost reaches a billion on the example amount as well - still ridiculously low rate.)
[doublepost=1507136476][/doublepost]

This scheme should be outlawed, after banning inversions, and the taxes clawed back, with interest, spread over maybe 1.5 times the period under which the individual company used this scheme.

Yeah I mean it's pretty fishy. There are so many laws for taxes (obviously different for each country), most of which are not worded to reflect modern times, that it's hard to completely counteract. I agree though that they should set a precedent, and that's exactly what they're trying to do now.

Some say it's just Europe overreaching, and while I normally agree with that, I do think it's good to set precedent here so that companies think more carefully before carrying out these deals in the future.
 
Cook: We care deeply for the environment as long as we find tax loopholes to generate more iwaste.
 
Maybe I missed something here, but why is an Amazon spokesperson saying anything about this incident? I see nothing else that would indicate they are involved in any shape or form, this seems to be between Apple, Ireland and the E.U.
Amazon was simultaneously handed a 250 million euro bill to pay to Luxembourg.
 
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Never a finer example of the EU being overreaching bureaucrats.
There seems to be a lot of discontent lately among member states of the EU (and rumblings of more exits to come) about the overreaching 'meddling' by the new parliament in Brussels they were not previously accustomed to, and that in addition to the 'have' countries resenting having to prop-up the 'have-nots'.

For the Europeans there are a lot of advantages to the whole concept of a 'united' Europe, but this ultimately means a certain kind of loss of autonomy the individual countries will have to get used to, together with some redistribution of wealth, if this 'experiment' is to last.
 
Only if Apple can prove that they had all the reasons to believe they were paying a fair/legal tax rate.

Reality is that they choose Ireland as their European hub for one reason only, that they could get a sweetheart tax deal.

Well, then why is the EU member that made that "sweet heart" tax deal not the responsible party? I don't believe Apple is a member of the EU.
 
Well, then why is the EU member that made that "sweet heart" tax deal not the responsible party? I don't believe Apple is a member of the EU.
Apple should have payed for better lawyers to check their deals. Or maybe they just chose to risk it.
 
Quantitative Easing involves buying securities of sovereigns and large corporates to fluff up the bond and stock markets and reduce pressure on rates and ratings of sovereign securities. So yes.
Yeah, you tell that to the people in these member states that are getting €2 per hour wages.
 
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.
I pay taxes, so should they. If they don't, they're taking some money that doesn't belong to them, which I call stealing. But they're rich, so their theft is ok, they'll find an agreement. Poor people not paying taxes are treaten like criminals, so should they.
 
Never a finer example of the EU being overreaching bureaucrats.
Never a finer example of someone talking about things he doesn't know s**t about and repeating the anti-EU clichés to pretend he understands. This has nothing to do with bureaucracy (which is no problem at all for Apple), this is Apple trying to evade taxes and Ireland fooling the EU to give Apple a good deal and take the money. Apple should pay, Ireland, Luxemburg and parasite countries like this, making presents to corporations with money that doesn't belong to them, should get out of the EU. But they won't because the boss is one of them.
 
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There is one easy solution for this issue:

If you buy a device/accessories in the one country, you have to pay taxes in the country from which the transaction occurred. Just expand the Mini-One-Stop-Shopping for ALL transaction (currently only for all electronic accessories (Apps, subscriptions, etc) and Apple has two choices, remove the products or pay taxes accordingly...

This one way to fix this system.
 
That really is not responsive to my point.

The problem:

It is questioned, whether the tax deal between Ireland and Apple are illegal state aids . Apple has to have a European HQ to have access the EU single market (including Norway and Switzerland). So an Irexit is no option for Apple. Ireland and Apple agreed to that deal to have Apple Europe (for the EU) in Ireland - reasons are obvious jobs and taxes.

It is not only Apple who goes this route. Today, the EU filed a law suit against Luxembourg for its Amazon tax deal...
 
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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?

I'm obviously talking about Europe in general, and obviously the big American tech companies are dominating the European market - in great part because they manipulate the markets and laws with their army of lawyers. Of course, these companies have great products, but if most of the tech business is run by a handful companies who hardly pay tax in the countries they are operating in - that's a problem!
 
The problem with the EU structure itself is it is a currency and trade zone but not a common fiscal zone like the USA or even Russia. The individual members are fiscally insolvent and have no intention of changing that. Imagine if the state of New York ran annual $100B deficits.

Oh wait.

The EU needs to become a fiscal union or dissolve.

Nope!
 
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