Apple Settles a $348M Fine With Italian Authorities For Tax Evasion (reuters.com)

jaromil writes: Apple Italy, a subsidiary of Apple Sales International based in Ireland, has for years managed the company's sales on the Italian Peninsula. As Italian tax authorities noticed the company did not file any income tax declarations between 2008 and 2013, they opened a court case for an estimated debt of €880M. Apple Italy has now settled for a fine of €318M ($348M), while three managers involved in the tax fraud still need to face court. "The settlement comes amid a European Commission investigation into the tax arrangements of numerous multinational companies accused of using cross-border structures to reduce their tax bills, sometimes with the help of secret and potentially illegal 'sweetheart' deals."

Comments

I hate these weasel arguments

[Anonymous Coward]

The company's chief executive, Tim Cook, has rejected accusations that the firm has been sidestepping US taxes by stashing cash overseas, insisting: "We pay every tax dollar we owe."

Of course they do.

They lobby for preferential tax treatment for local and federal taxes. They use the law they and other powerful entities lobbied for to reduce or eliminate their tax bill. Then they can honestly say that they pay what they owe because they rigged the system so that they don't owe.

The Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules - Robert Kiyosaki

We peons get holding the bag.

Can we get some of that over here

[rsilvergun]

in America? Corps benefit handsomely from our infrastructure, school systems and workforce subsidies. I'd like to see them paying for some of those benefits, and so far Federally levied taxes are the only thing that works. The States & Cities just drop their pants and give 'em free money because their fighting amongst themselves (or their bought off, it's dirt cheap to buy off State Legislatures here).

Re:Can we get some of that over here

[thegarbz]

I'd like to see them paying for some of those benefits

No you can't because mega corps aren't evading taxes in America, they are just following laws as written.

This is a problem you can't blame corporations for and it can only be solved on the level of your own government, who I agree are too busy fellating CEOs in exchange for "jobs" which never materialise.

Re:Can we get some of that over here

[Gavagai80]

We're talking about a tax on profits. Taxing profits logically cannot drive a business to bankruptcy (especially Apple -- the notion of Apple going bankrupt from having to share a percentage of its huge profits is absurd). It simply means the stockholders get a smaller dividend for their lack of work. If the company wishes to reinvest the profits in development or acquisitions then it doesn't end up being profit anyway and they needn't be taxed.

apple is mostly smoke and mirrors

[sittingnut]

that apple cheats on taxes is not surprising, current apple is built on deception.
it charges for products well in excess of their costs( all costs, including design and development) and gets away with it due to marketing hype, and idiocy of the consumers, and failure of the media to check and reveal facts

Re:apple is mostly smoke and mirrors

[Anonymous Coward]

What deception? They have a popular product and charge what the market will bear.

You can get a cheaper Android. You can get an older model for much cheaper. You know, like 2 years older.

Like so many (this includes medicine) you want new stuff, constantly produced, and cheap. It doesn't work that way.

From a product standpoint you are exactly right.

From a tax standpoint, they're no different then every other mega-corp in America who hires attorneys to work around loopholes, knowing damn well the penalties are a fraction of the honest cost.

That's not the fault of Apple. That's the fault of governments allowing that bullshit to happen, and then slapping them on the fucking wrist when they get caught. And YES, this IS a slap on the fucking wrist when the penalty is less than half the original estimated tax burden, regardless of we're talking about hundreds of millions.

Re:Anyone can pay more taxes if they'd like

[Anonymous Coward]

No it isn't, it's the massively wealthy that put people into power the world over. Your vote doesn't matter when those that are presented to you represent the same people behind the curtain.

The loopholes were created by these elites. They didn't happen as a accident, or bad policy, they were orchestrated to allow this precise situation, and will continue to do so, regardless of public outrage. The corporation isn't exploiting them, their owners created them! This is why ex-politicians sit on so many boards after they've served the public. None of them get executive powers, just a non-exec post offering a few £$00k/yr per position across a number of corps, quangos and agencies.

Re:But Tim Cook said!!

[Anonymous Coward]

In organizations they are usually a few bad apples especially when they get the size of Apple.

Oh no, no no. Tim Cook is the CEO. He IS responsible. That's why he gets paid the obscene bucks.

Amazing isn't it? CEO's claim they deserve the big bucks because they are responsible for how the company is run and the buck stops with them but as soon as the shit hits the ran "its nothing to do with me gov" somebody else was responsible.