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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.

Yet keysofanxiety has 11 likes on his comment and you have none. Maybe you should follow your own advice.
 
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Funny how Apple gets the bill when Ireland are just as responsible.
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.
 
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"Vestiges said this selective treatment allowed Apple to pay an effective corporate tax rate of 1 percent on its European profits in 2003 down to 0.005 percent in 2014. Therefore in 2014 Apple paid 0.005 percent tax on EU profits"

Seems perfectly reasonable and fair.

This isn't looking too good. Mr Cook personally cashing in $35,000,000 in stock days before the ruling that Apple owes 14.5 Billion dollars due to illegal tax evasion. Not looking good at all.
 
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But now that we find out Apple have been paying 0.005% tax on European sales?

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).
 
So you start a small business and your local government gives you tax breaks to stimulate the city's economy.
Five years later, when the financial crisis is over, they come back asking for back taxes at a higher rate.

How would you feel? You're not going to say 'Oh shucks, okay let me make up for what I didn't pay"

Yes, Apple paid very little, but wasn't everything done by the letter of the law?
 
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.

===========================

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.

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.
 
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).

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...
 
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.

$200 million after transfer pricing, the real profit is alot higher .-)
 
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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.


Very good points. Thanks for bringing me down to Earth. It's not all doom and gloom. :)
 
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Cook advocates for big, authoritarian-style government yet doesn't put his shareholder's money where his mouth is.

Perhaps the authoritarians in the EU should become competitive in terms of tax policy instead of using corporations to stealthily raise taxes on the citizens of the EU. Of course all the people saying, "yeah, sock it too Apple" seem not to realize, they are really saying, "yeah, sock it to everyone buying Apple products - particularly the poor who will pay a much larger percent of their income for these extra taxes."

It is odd how all the supposed champions of the little guy want them to pay more taxes or have to forgo the newest tech. Do they really just want to keep the poor from having the latest tech and the ability to compete?
 
And how did they only have 200 million in profit for 8000 million in local revenue? Do you think Apple's margins are somehow a 20th in Australia compared to their global profit margin? No. The point is they have shifted the profit-base to Ireland, shafting Australia in the process.

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.
 
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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).

Right on with all of these points. I could not agree more. Nothing has been shown that Apple did anything illegal. This is the EU trying to steal money to fund their sinking ship.
 
I find it weird how people are saying Apple did something wrong.

Should Ireland have laws that require higher corporate taxes? Maybe - that's not our debate to be had. The people of Ireland should be debating that. They're a sovereign country and can make their own decisions.

Should Apple have paid more? No. That makes no freaking sense. They should pay what they owe. It's not Apple's position to say "Hey, you should tax us a different amount Ireland. Here's the amount we think you should tax us." What amount should Apple pay? They should pay the amount the law says they should. There's no feelings or anything involved in this - the law is hard and fast. You work through the formulas to determine the exact amount that's owed.

Should the EU be stepping in? IDK - I'm not really sure what the role of the EU should be. I think of the EU's relationship with its member countries as being similar to the US's relation with its member states. If a state is violating the US constitution or US law, then whatever choices that state makes should be overturned. But for the most part, the US government leaves things up to the states. IE, it's up to the states to decide how much to charge for property taxes and sales taxes.

Unless the EU has some sort of law that explicitly talks about corporate tax rates, then it seems to me the EU has overstepped its boundaries. If that's the case, then this seems like it should be straight forward and it shouldn't take years to investigate.
 
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.

I'm very doubtful that Tim actually thinks it will be reversed.
 
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