Can't say you're getting much sympathy here, Timmy.
You've been hosing customers for years with high prices and (still expensive) entry-level products that just don't perform to an Apple standard. You've been making ludicrous profit margins on every product and building up a wall of cash to sit on. You've been smashing down on suppliers to lower the costs even further, yet maintain those same high prices and margins on products.
You raise prices in countries when the exchange rate is having a few hiccups, when if anything, they should be lowered due to the age of the tech. As you're not an engineer or even a Mac user, you have no appreciation of how much difference even a simple Fusion drive can make in entry-level Mac Minis, for an utterly negligible cost. You do all this and still sniff your own farts about Apple being the best company in the world and make products that enrich people's lives.
Even with all this considered, I've been defending Apple left, right, and centre where I believe it's applicable.
But now that we find out Apple have been paying 0.005% tax on European sales? The deep realisation has hit me that you couldn't give a damn about your customers' experience, and no amount of money or profits will ever be enough for you, or convince you to appropriately put back into the products you sell.
For what utterly little it's worth (and it is very, very, very little to you, I'm sure), you've turned this passionate Apple fan and defender into a jaded, listless user, praying that his 2012 MBP won't die.
You really need to spend your time better.
The moron mob of investors needs something to soothe them into not stampeding in blind panic.I don't get it...... What's an open letter going to do? This is a matter for the courts.
if your tax guy apply loose codes to your income tax, your on the hook for the cash. not him. Apple knew what was going on at under 1%. Their tax guys and lawyers are paid an absurd amount of money to milk the crap out of the codes.Funny how Apple gets the bill when Ireland are just as responsible.
Ireland disagrees.lol such bs. pay up. Everyone says Apple should only pay what is law. Well the law has been laid down.
But now that we find out Apple have been paying 0.005% tax on European sales?
Of course, you are cherry-picking numbers and making random assumptions to make your point.It's worse than that. Apple has been diverting taxable profits from other markets into Ireland. See this article about how they only paid $85 million tax on 8 billion in revenue in Australia http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-...almost-8-billion-revenue-20160126-gmej0z.html
(I realise it's revenue and not profit. So it's perhaps 2% tax they've paid here rather than the 1% suggested by those figures. Still an abysmal rate).
Ireland disagrees.
Hey EU! You don't get to tell us what our law is!!
But now that we find out Apple have been paying 0.005% tax on European sales? The deep realisation has hit me that you couldn't give a damn about your customers' experience, and no amount of money or profits will ever be enough for you, or convince you to appropriately put back into the products you sell.
It's worse than that. Apple has been diverting taxable profits from other markets into Ireland. See this article about how they only paid $85 million tax on 8 billion in revenue in Australia http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-...almost-8-billion-revenue-20160126-gmej0z.html
(I realise it's revenue and not profit. So it's perhaps 2% tax they've paid here rather than the 1% suggested by those figures. Still an abysmal rate).
Of course, you are cherry-picking numbers and making random assumptions to make your point.
The article you cited claims $80 million in taxes on $200 million in profits. A 40% rate.
This is going to be a fun story over the next few months/years.
Who will end up looking like fools - will it be Apple forced to pay after being cited for doing something illegal or will it be the MacRumors majority who seem convinced Apple did something wrong.
100% Apple should pay if they did something illegal.
Where's my popcorn.
===========================
So much noise. So little substance.
Tim Cook on his personal cash:
- "Apple's Tim Cook will give away all his money"
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-ceo-tim-cook-idUSKBN0MM2YM20150326
Tim Cook on Apple doing things to maximise shareholder return:
- "“When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind, I don’t consider the bloody ROI,” Cook said"
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ok-climate-change-sceptics-ditch-apple-shares
"appropriately put back into the products you sell"
- "Apple's R&D expense saw a significant bump up beginning in mid-2014. It was clear Apple was up to something big. However, after looking at Apple's 2Q16 results, it appears I underestimated the situation. As depicted in Exhibit 1, Apple is now on track to spend more than $10 billion on R&D in 2016, up nearly 30% from 2015 and ahead of even my aggressive estimate"
http://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2016/5/11/apple-rd-reveals-a-pivot-is-coming
The anti-Apple MacRumors hyperbole rises ever greater. Yet customer satisfaction remains sky high...
- Apple Watch - http://appleinsider.com/articles/15...action-outpaces-original-iphone-ipad---report
- iPhone (up 1 point from 2015 to 2016) - https://9to5mac.com/2016/06/01/american-customer-satisfaction-index-apple/
- iPad - http://www.patentlyapple.com/patent...tion-study-with-microsoft-gaining-ground.html
-MacBooks - http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/macbook-leads-reliability-customer-satisfaction/
Happy to be proven wrong, but I'm afraid your feelings for the company are not enough to do that. Data would be great.
Of course, you are cherry-picking numbers and making random assumptions to make your point.
The article you cited claims $80 million in taxes on $200 million in profits. A 40% rate.
Yep. Just not the profit generated in Australia.$200 million after transfer pricing, the real profit is alot higher .-)
1) Apple is a publicly traded company, and as such, has a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders to use any legal means to minimize its tax liabilities.
2) Ireland's current tax laws that Apple is taking advantage of may or may not need to be updated based on how things have changed since they were first written. Whether they should be or not is a subjective matter that can be discussed by all stakeholder parties, and any changes made need to be in line with other Ireland and EU governing policies.
3) However, the EU simply cannot retrospectively change Ireland tax laws on what they think they should have been. The only relevant question is did Apple follow existing Ireland tax law correctly? If so, they cannot impose a retroactive tax on Apple. The EU does have leverage to drive changes to Ireland's tax policies moving forward, though.
4) This type of ham-handed extra-legislative action by the EU is exactly the type of thing that got the "Brexit" stuff started (and even passed). If the EU bureaucrats continue to overstep their boundaries and supersede the legislatures and courts of the member countries, they're going to continue to find themselves with fewer member countries (and more to the point, the net tax-paying countries that can both afford to leave and have the biggest impact when they do).
That article clearly states they made $123 million in profit after taxes, so $208 million before. That's a 40.1% tax rate.
Math's not that hard...
208 million in profit on 8000 in revenue? Do you see the problem?
Nope.
That's a 2.6% profit rate. It's a little on the low side, but not exceptionally low.
https://www.aei.org/publication/the...-36-profit-margin-which-is-about-5x-too-high/
Apple's next move is to appeal the Commission's ruling, which Ireland is said to be doing as well, with Cook remaining "confident" that the decision will ultimately be reversed and the company won't have to pay the 13 billion euros after all.