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Apple May Owe $8 Billion To the EU After Tax Ruling (bloomberg.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the don't-forget-the-gratuity dept.

Robotron23 writes: An investigation by the EU Commission may make Apple liable for up to $8 billion in back taxes. Bloomberg Intelligence estimates Apple has paid only 1.8% tax on profits between 2004 and 2012 — this ruling increases their liability to 12.5%. This decision comes hot on the heels of a tax avoidance settlement Apple reached with Italy last month for $347 million.

2 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Re:$8 billion only? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ^This

    The unfortunate side-effect of tax avoidance: lower wages means lower standard of living, which leads to lower health and education. Then, to compensate for that, the government has to create programs. If the government can't fund those programs (because low wages means low tax revenue), then they shut them down, which increases the lower standard of living, health, and education.

    Tax evasion really screws things up for everyone, in the long run. A few hundred dollars a year from everyone is a lot, so it's not just the super rich, big corporations.

    It may be politics, too; maybe the corporations know that, if the tax dollars can't be collected, they'll end the programs. It will hurt the other party's image, and thus, their friends get elected, thereby passing laws to help their greed a bit longer.

  2. Apple is cheating on their taxses... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...and so is Starbucks, and Amazon. and McDonalds, and Google, and Fiat-Chrysler ... et cetera ad nauseam. I hope they all get to pay billions in back taxes. Tim Cook, Eric Schmidt and the rest of those corporate demigods can regurgitate all the capitalist free market ideological diarrhea they want. As long as I'm paying something like half of what I earn in various taxes, they and their corporations can pay up too. According to Google's 2014 results statement their effective tax rate was 16%, that's a tax rate I can only dream of.