http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37220799 So, Ireland's industrial policy has for a couple of decades been based upon a low corporate tax rate of 12.5% This had begun to anger European and US policy-makers as companies located in Ireland to avoid paying taxes elsewhere, sometimes funnelling profits through shell companies based here. Many companies paid only a fraction of the 12.5% rate due to other write-offs. And now the EC have directed that Apple recieved unfair state aid, in the form of a special deal where they paid just 0.005% tax. They've ordered Apple to pay in the region of €13 billion in back taxes. This would be quite a windfall for Ireland, but bizarrely our government doesn't want the money and have gone on the attack, promising to appeal the ruling etc. Good to see the tax-dodging fuckers being penalised in my view.
If they take the money, then the message is clear: Ireland is no longer a tax haven. That risks losing out on more corporate re-locations. Ireland figures some small percent of something is better than a larger percent of nothing.
Post-Brexit, many of the major banks, law firms and corporations are looking to set up off shoots in Ireland to be both within the CTA and the EU. Corporations like Apple did well in Ireland, specially after the UK started trying to increase tax claims. It is a desirable location with good tax incentives. Your government knows this, and so do the bureaucrats of the EU. The Irish government wants that investment for national prosperity. The EU wants to avoid the spectre of Ireland prospering in the shadow of Brexit. I think this is more complicated are the simplistic "evil corporations should pay tax" narrative.
Ireland should take the tax money and give 12 billion of it back to Apple, then spend the other billion on hookers and booze for anti-EU politicians.
This was quite amusing. I've no problems with companies making use of laws to reduce their taxes, and I'm against tax on annual profits due to their regressive effects on wages, staff benefits and investment (a turnover tax, or a tax on corporate savings over a certain level would be more likely to get the likes of Apple to user their money rather than hoarding it in the hope of a tax deal to repatriate it to the US.) This was a little different. If you're in the EU, well, their gaff, their rules, don't like it then start a... Not sure what portmanteau to give an Irish one. Irixit? Mixit? But this again shows some of the issues with the EU, Eire is basically a big fucking farm whose biggest exports are a high suicide rate, educated people leaving for places with a lower suicide rate, and really fucking morose music (which I can only assume came about as some way to combat the Catholic aversion to birth control. Two songs of that shit and there's not enough viagra on the planet to rustle up a semi) which goes some way to explain said suicide rate. In order to compete with more industrially developed nations and draw some tax revenue they took an axe to the corporation tax rate, which is fine, but doing sweetheart deals for one or two really isn't. Those back-taxes could pay for infrastructure to drive inwards investment without needing to spread it's big hairy ginger arse cheeks for an Apple scented shafting. I've met a lot of Irish who've come to the UK, they're smart, well-educated and good people and, with their government trying something other than being the Emerald Luxembourg, could likely make a Celtic Tiger that doesn't end up looking more like a Tigger instead. Not sure what this says about the EU though, it's going to pause some investment which the EU badly needs. They've twatted about for years before doing something about this, so I'd have figured they'd have some deal where Apple pays the taxes, but in a more nuanced way rather than managing to annoy the US and sending warning signals to business. With the TTIP falling apart too, the EU isn't playing soft power very well. Like with Crimea, this just shows how politically weak the EU actually is, and something that could've been handled adroitly will instead be dragged out for years because they don't know when to waggle the baseball bat, and when to whisper menaces. Looking forward to Luxembourg being investigated though, hopefully that prick Junker will have the good sense to find a very dark cave.
Ireland stands to lose a lot from Brexit, so if there are upsides we should take them. But you're going to have to explain to me what complications there are on the question of whether Apple should be able to use a non-existent head office to pay 0.005% tax. How is that even helping Ireland?
It's protection money so Apple doesn't trot out the drunk Irishman version of Siri for the rest of the world.
They can't be tax dodgers. They are following the laws of Ireland. Your government doesn't want Apple to pay because it is smart enough to realize that if it's laws are overridden by the EU then a whole lot of your economy goes bye-bye when the corporations start pulling out. Of course you don't probably care and would be more then willing to pick up the slack in taxes by paying more like the good little stupid communist you are. Right?
If they recieved a sweetheart deal from the Irish government, then they are not in fact following the laws of Ireland, since EU law (and Ireland is an EU member) prohibits that. No other corporations recieve this deal, so why would they pull out?
What business does the EU have telling Ireland, a sovereign country, how it will collect taxes? This is why I'm against the EU as it currently stands. It either needs to become a country or it needs to go back to its roots of economic cooperation and not coercion.
Agreements to maintain minimal standards against corruption are "economic co-operation". As an EU member Ireland has voluntarily signed up to these.
You don't think that offering more favourable tax rates to selected companies is corrupt? I'd have thought it a basic principle that the state should treat them all equally.
The state should treat them all equally but the fact that they don't doesn't make it corrupt. Nothing was done in secret here. The EU could have spoken up years ago against this. It didn't. The EU is broke basically and is looking for more money from where ever it can get it. That's all this is about.
It's not just the EU looking for money. The US has been trying to crack this nut for years, but without success. Technically, under US law, Apple owes some combination of countries 35% on net income. Ireland figured out how to get a piece of that, by allowing them to park European profits there at a very low rate. The rest of the 35% is meant to be paid to the US and other countries where the economic activity actually occurred. The problem is, nobody can collect it as long as the money sits in Irish banks. The EU is saying that Ireland needs to collect an amount that matches actual profit derived from Apple activity derived in the EU. Apparently they have the legal means to make that happen (maybe). That's why it's a big deal for Ireland, because they no longer can protect Apple from paying the total Euro share of the 35%. The US still hasn't updated its laws to make it possible for us to collect our share, and this ruling means that if we ever figure it out, we'll get less anyway. So I'm with the Irish government on this, fuck Europe!
Ireland needs to tell the EU to stuff in their ear. EU is just looking for some (a lot) of quick and easy money. If the EU succeeds, the U.S. should boycott EVERYTHING from Europe. Sorry VW.
That's the third (?) time someone has implied that the EU stands to gain money from this. They don't. And do you have any idea how much of a clusterfuck the global economy would be in if the US stopped trading with Europe?
If Apple is supposed to pay 12 billion Euros in taxes on money they've got sitting in Irish banks, then Irish banks have something like 35 billion Euros of Apple money on their books, which is being used in all kinds of ways by those banks. If the EU succeeds then there's no point in Apple banking in Ireland and all that money goes elsewhere.
