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

madeirabhoy said:
because firstly, the simple bit is ireland broke the rules. they dropped their trousers to apple.

secondly, the world has a problem in that its easy these days for multinationals to play governments against each other to get the best results. at least in ireland apple opened factories, whereas in luxembourg apple put all of iTunes income through what was a post box. the EU as a whole loses out in this, so they have to clamp down on individual governments dropping their trousers.
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All taxes are ultimately paid by the consumer not the corporation. If there is a country tax rule that is favourable, perhaps other countries should consider adjusting theirs. The USA is in the process of doing exactly that right now. So it is true for all, even countries with a large GDP and large social transfer payments.

As Tim said, this is a POLITICAL argument not a LEGAL one. EU did venue shop and misdirect their legal theory to get an initial ruling, but that is analogous to rulings in our 9th Circuit Court, which the MAJORITY are overturned by the Supreme Court! Or filing IP cases in S Texas. Same thing.

One other nit. Ireland offered the same advantages to dozens of companies, not just Apple so the preferential treatment argument is simply false, and it is one of the prongs of the law that has to be satisfied to prevail. Oops.
 
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apolloa said:
The EU is not a country, and I don’t need to google anything thanks, I’ve seen so many doom and gloom predictions, only to not happen and then those same people who predicted it back track..
And their are plenty of banks and big businesses not going anywhere..
But you can believe what ever you want to...
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To be fair though we haven’t seen anything positive to come from voting out yet though. So far everything is suddenly getting more expensive and I’d welcome something positive to end some of the doom and gloom.
 
Rocketman said:
All taxes are ultimately paid by the consumer not the corporation. If there is a country tax rule that is favourable, perhaps other countries should consider adjusting theirs. The USA is in the process of doing exactly that right now. So it is true for all, even countries with a large GDP and large social transfer payments.

As Tim said, this is a POLITICAL argument not a LEGAL one. EU did venue shop and misdirect their legal theory to get an initial ruling, but that is analogous to rulings in our 9th Circuit Court, which the MAJORITY are overturned by the Supreme Court! Or filing IP cases in S Texas. Same thing.

One other nit. Ireland offered the same advantages to dozens of companies, not just Apple so the preferential treatment argument is simply false, and it is one of the prongs of the law that has to be satisfied to prevail. Oops.
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but thats not true first of all in the direct sense. companies have to weigh up selling at a price that will sell, rather than working out a set profit and then bunging on all the taxes.

i can give a direct proof of this, sorry if its not big multinational enough, but in Madeira restaurants used to pay 5% VAT rather than full rate, but under austerity measures due to Portugal's weak finances, this was removed and they paid 22% vat. prices didnt rise. last year as Portugal's finances improved, the government reduced restaurant VAT back down to 5%. prices didnt drop.

secondly, when the multinationals pay less tax, and even worse pay it into other countries to avoid tax, all the other countries lose tax income which at the end of the day means the consumers there are worse off as their governments take in less money which has to be made up by direct taxation.

plus, and this is a generalisation aimed maybe less (not not none) at apple and more at say amazon, but giving the multinationals unfair advantages means that national businesses are unable to compete, which means less jobs, and less profits being kept in the country, so ideally (but unrealistically) we should be finding ways to tax these companies more, alas that wont happen.
 
The-Real-Deal82 said:
To be fair though we haven’t seen anything positive to come from voting out yet though. So far everything is suddenly getting more expensive and I’d welcome something positive to end some of the doom and gloom.
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The only things I’ve seen get more expensive are luxury electronic goods? And we are leaving the EU, that’s the best thing, because we won’t be part of some dictatorship European superstate where unelected French and Germans battle it out over who runs it, along with an EU army. Sounds like past history that... IMO
They should of stuck to trade only, not all the other stuff that we’ve been selling ourselves down the river to join for the last few years..
 
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apolloa said:
The only things I’ve seen get more expensive are luxury electronic goods? And we are leaving the EU, that’s the best thing, because we won’t be part of some dictatorship European superstate where unelected French and Germans battle it out over who runs it, along with an EU army. Sounds like past history that... IMO
They should of stuck to trade only, not all the other stuff that we’ve been selling ourselves down the river to join for the last few years..
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lots of food items are more expensive, a lot of the time masked by cutting the food amount rather than increase the price.

holidays both in terms of hotel bookings and in terms of spending on holiday in the eurozone. the airlines are trying to absorb the increases in cost but with the bankruptcy of monarch this will soon stop.


and this is way before we get to actual brexit.
[doublepost=1507587073][/doublepost]and a separate question. lots of brexiteers keep saying things like

And we are leaving the EU, that’s the best thing, because we won’t be part of some dictatorship European superstate where unelected French and Germans battle it out over who runs it,

how in practice will this mean the common man is better off?
 
It is the UK who used to impose their neoliberal ways on the rest of the EU.
 
apolloa said:
The only things I’ve seen get more expensive are luxury electronic goods? And we are leaving the EU, that’s the best thing, because we won’t be part of some dictatorship European superstate where unelected French and Germans battle it out over who runs it, along with an EU army. Sounds like past history that... IMO
They should of stuck to trade only, not all the other stuff that we’ve been selling ourselves down the river to join for the last few years..
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Food products have shrunk considerably with prices remaining the same but often with the need to buy more to compensate. My family have noticed it. Manufacturers are passing on the price of the weak pound but hoping we don’t notice. Children’s toys have shot up in price. Argos for instance run a three for two offer and have doubled prices on certain toys, again hoping we don’t notice. We’re all feeling the pinch and yes electronics are also suddenly more expensive.

I’m not as optimistic as you yet but hope we can work something out.
 
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The-Real-Deal82 said:
Food products have shrunk considerably with prices remaining the same but often with the need to buy more to compensate. My family have noticed it. Manufacturers are passing on the price of the weak pound but hoping we don’t notice. Children’s toys have shot up in price. Argos for instance run a three for two offer and have doubled prices on certain toys, again hoping we don’t notice. We’re all feeling the pinch and yes electronics are also suddenly more expensive.

I’m not as optimistic as you yet but hope we can work something out.
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I only know about chocolate bars reducing in size, don’t buy children’s toys so I’ll have to take your word for it.
But I wouldn’t worry, businesses will ensure it works despite the governments efforts although the transatlantic trade deal announced today sounds impressive! If we get to joint then the UK, US, Mexico and Canada will make up a trading group controlling over 30% of the planets entire economy!!! And it will be bigger money wise then the entire EU.

The BAE thing was just due to defence cuts from the last few years and not enough deals with other countries, not Brexit.
 
Nr123*123 said:
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.
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Then change the Irish laws and close the loophole so that it doesn't happen in the future. In the past, Apple and Ireland both agreed to the same understanding/consensus of the tax laws, so technically neither has done anything illegal.
 
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