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But why aren't companies made to pay the rate of tax in the country in which the product is sold? Isn't that how tax is meant to work? Why are they allowed to 'trick' the system by making the purchase look like it was made somewhere else with lower tax? That seems dishonest and lucrative.
 
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.
Yep. In compliance with Australian laws.
 
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.

Well said sir; I saw the truth of it some time back, and it does indeed very much disappoint, jaded being very apt. Apple may "just" be on the right side of the law in some countries, that said Apple is morally bankrupt at very best, as the greed is simply staggering.

I still have some of our older Mac`s, I look at the quality versus my latest Retina`s, with the older ones being simply put together to higher standards. They physically show less wear & tear albeit they have served countless thousands of hours under hard use. All this adds up to Apple producing a cheaper product at the same premium price point to it`s customers. Yet as stated driving it`s suppliers ever harder for reductions, bullying by using it`s scale of of economy to force pricing ever downwards.

I do think in many ways that this 2015 rMB may well be my last Mac, as Apple`s duplicity does not sit well with me at all. On a more technical note, I don't trust Apple from a business perspective not to make another spectacular "cant innovate my ass" for the Mac in 2016 solely due to bad press and falling sales, only then to abandon the line exactly how Apple has done with the the Mac Pro. Not only has Apple lost me as a customer, Apple has lost all my companies and several others I am involved with; computers, phones, tablets.

At a point now where I doubt I will get through the next KeyNote as watching Tim Cook drone on how "awesome" all Apple`s products are simply sickens me to my back teeth. As an engineer I look at Apple`s product, my immediate thoughts are; this is designed to serve Apple not the customer...

Q-6
 
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I fully understand how tax works. The issue is that profits have been diverted to low or almost zero tax rate markets that are neither the country of sale or the country that Apple is based in, depriving both of those countries of taxable profits and therefore tax at the applicable rate.
Maybe you're fine with that, but I'm not. I bust my gut to pay taxes here, we're paying a premium for Apple's dates products adjusted for our currency, yet Apple is not paying their dues. It may be legal but it is completely unethical. Its time for Apple to pay their dues.

You're confusing "corporate tax rate" with "profit rate." Two totally different concepts.

Look back at my first post in the reply chain. 40.1%.
 
So what will happen

As I understand it, there are international agreements in place that allow you to not pay taxes twice. So, usually you can deduct from your taxes owed the amount you already payed elsewhere.

Yes, that would make sense.

All I was trying to point out in my original post was that this is not the EU stealing from the US.

Taxes are due in the EU before the US can tax any remaining profits (ie after any EU taxes have been paid) once the money is transferred from the EU to the US
 
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.
ireland has been giving Apple tax incentives since the 80s.

You find out in 2016 and now it's all Timmy's fault.

Did you use a ladder to climb up on that cross?
 
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The biggest issue I have with Cook's response is the continuation of the "job creator" myth, where business itself tries to take the credit for something that also requires a stable central government, advanced infrastructure, and a large consumer base with disposable income…all things that the business itself didn't create. Jobs are the result of a collective effort in many different levels of society, not just an individual business and it's products/services.
 
Ireland disagrees.
Hey EU! You don't get to tell us what our law is!!

Hey Ireland, when you joined our big play pond, you signed a document agreeing on what the law is.

The EU is not telling Ireland what the law is - they re telling them they have to apply the Irish law equally to all companies. What most with opinions on this seem to not realise is that the Irish government back in the day gave Apple special deals that were not available to other companies. This is a completely separate issue to the 12.5% tax rate and even the double Irish tax ridiculousness. The Irish government and Apple made an illegal deal to screw the Irish people out of 13billion. The EU is calling them out on it. Proper order.
 
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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.


Did you even read the article? Ireland says Apple doesn't owe them anything!

Read!
 
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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.
They are not changing Irelands tax law. They are rectifying a situation which constitutes illegal state aid. A tax break and a lump sum of cash have the same effect. It is a subsidy, and it creates unfair competition. If I were to open a business in Ireland, I would not pay 0.005 % of my profits in taxes - Apple does.
 
Did you even read the article? Ireland says Apple doesn't owe them anything!

Read!

Come on, if we're telling others to read... I didn't say they owe Ireland anything. It's just a ludicrously low number (0.005%) tax. I mean, ridiculously low. Undefendable. People on minimum wage pay considerably more than that. It isn't right, and I think you know that.
 
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Open letters are only written to try to sway public opinion, I'm afraid Tim will find little sympathy from a public that pays high tax rates on declining incomes.
 
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No, I used my eyes to read the document, which clearly states the 0.005% tax rate was implemented in 2014.
The EC press release said that the allocation method that Ireland used to compute the taxes resulted in Apple's effective tax rate declining from 1% in 2003 down to .005% in 2014. I don't see anywhere where the actual tax rate was changed. Can you quote where you saw the tax rate changed, please?

The same EC press release also says: "two tax rulings issued by Ireland to Apple have substantially and artificially lowered the tax paid by Apple in Ireland since 1991".

So the EC finds this has really been going on since 1991, but you want to hang it all on Timmy's head. Really?
 
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So the EC finds this has really been going on since 1991, but you want to hang it all on Timmy's head. Really?

In retrospect my comment wasn't particularly well articulated. Either of them. I didn't mean to imply "hang it all on Timmy's head". Everybody knew that Apple and most other companies were using Ireland for ages with this sort of thing.

Moreso that no matter how much profit/tax dodging Apple achieve (legally or otherwise), it feels like the customer's still getting hosed. And I think 0.005% was the straw that broke the camel's back. That just seems unthinkable to me and all the dissatisfaction came out in one rambling post.

I've reduced the vitriol a lot though and will take a few deep breaths in future before posting :oops:

Thanks for keeping me right, posters. :)
 
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