Slashdot Mirror
Apple CEO Tim Cook on EU Apple Tax Case: 'Total Political Crap' (arstechnica.com)
Earlier this week, Apple was ordered to pay a record sum of 13 billion euros plus interest after the EU said Ireland illegally slashed the iPhone make's tax bill. At the time, Tim Cook found the accusations "baseless." In a new interview, he had more things to say:A war of words has erupted between Europe's competition chief and Apple CEO Tim Cook after Ireland was ordered to reclaim $14.5 billion in back taxes from the company. Cook, in an interview with the Irish Independent, labelled Brussels' competition chief Margrethe Vestager's decision as "total political crap." He claimed Ireland was being "picked on" and that he hoped to see the Irish government launch an appeal against the ruling. Vestager refuted that claim when quizzed by reporters on Thursday. "This is a decision based on the facts of the case. The figures that we used in our decision are the figures that we got from Apple themselves," she said. "There are very, very few figures in the public domain. More transparency would be a good thing, for example, a country by country reporting. If it was up to me, the non-confidential version of the decision would have been published yesterday, because that is another way of enabling everyone to see what we have decided and on what basis we have made this decision. Right now the ball is in the hands of Apple and Ireland."
It's "political crap" because it's something you don't agree with. Law of the land, buddy.
Wait, I thought that liberals like Cook were all for gouging those eeebil corporations and making them pay their fair share? If he was being consistent, he'd be happy to pay and then ask, "thank you sir, may I have another?"
Looks like one precenter, Tim Cook, is progressive only when it doesn't come to paying fair share.
I don't understand. I just thought we did business in various countries around the world, and didn't pay taxes. People,people are supposed to pay all the taxes.
: P
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Translation: Waaaahhhh!
That is all.
It isn't about whether Apple followed the law or not, it's about the fact that Ireland had no right, by the terms of its international agreements with the EU and as part of its obligations as a member of the Common Market, to negotiate this special deals with Apple, Microsoft and the rest.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
... but we're going to punish Apple.
Hey, it's just like anti-gun rhetoric. Bad guy does something bad with a gun, let's punish everyone except the bad guy.
This is the EU saying to Ireland "Your law violates European law - fix it". This is correct. What is sketchy is the retrospective nature of the "and grab a few billion from Apple while you're fixing it"
I disagree that it is sketchy at all. Apple is going through all kinds of contortions to avoid paying any taxes. This is in clear violation of the spirit of the law and apparently the EU believes it is in violation of the letter of the law as well. Apple enjoys the benefits of public services from the taxes paid but isn't willing to pay their fair share. I have ZERO sympathy for Apple here. They shouldn't be entitled to any tax breaks not available to individuals or small enterprises. Furthermore if what they did was illegal then there is no retrospective anything. It means that Apple rightfully owes money it hasn't paid.
It's all just taxes on people in the end. Corporations aren't real things, they're abstract - they're just groups of people organised together to do a task.
Corporation taxes are paid as a proportion of profits (incomes minus costs) - if they go up then there are less profits, which someone has to pay for: generally it will be paid for by some combination of:
- Workers, through lower wages
- Shareholders, through lower dividends (and by association, lower stock prices)
- Consumers, through higher prices
- Less investment in the business, and hence the productivity of the staff, since the lower profits lead to lower retained earnings
It may be that you are happy with at least one of these groups paying more (I would guess most are happy with shareholders paying more) but my point is that a corporation doesn't pay anything because it doesn't exist, only people exist and only they pay.
For Irexit.
Seeing as how Apple is involved that would make it:
iRexit
But seriously, this fight should be between the EU and Ireland. Apple did not write Irish tax laws.
This would be like a landlord who underpays taxes because he foolishly agreed to rent his property at too low a price and the IRS, instead of keeping the issue between the landlord and the IRS, goes after the tenant for rent the IRS thinks the tenant should have paid to the landlord in order for the landlord to meet the his tax obligation. Or the IRS going after Walmart customers who "didn't pay enough for their purchases" for Walmart to pay all their taxes.
Cook is spot-on. It's political crap from a collapsing union in decline, sinking under the weight of an overbearing collectivist bureaucracy, entitlements, and Newspeak PC political/ideological horseshit.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Apple paid about $7,000,000,000 in taxes to the US govt last year.
That isn't the real number. In 2011 the tax on their GAAP statements was $6.9B but the amount the actually sent to the IRS was less than half of that. Taxes are done on a cash basis, not accrual basis so you have to look deeper than their financial statements. Apple pays in some cases single digit percentages of their profits.
Is that a fair enough share for you?
Considering that the amount they paid as a percentage is FAR less than what many other companies pay and less than the percent I pay the answer is a clear NO. Furthermore they pay a lot of tax because they are absurdly profitable. Complaining about having such good fortune is absurd.
Do you try to minimize your tax burden?
Don't pretend that Apple's situation and my personal tax situation are remotely comparable. I pay a FAR higher tax rate than Apple does. Furthermore Apple gets to play all sorts of games playing jurisdictions off against each other which isn't something you or I get to do. It's not fair, it's not right, and it's not ethical. Evidently the EU agrees that it isn't legal either. Perhaps Apple shouldn't be entitled to hire people from public schools and universities or get protection from police or fire. After all they seem to think that we should have to pay for those things on their behalf so they can make even more billions than they already are. When is enough money enough?
Do you take any deductions? Are others not allowed to because they made more money?
Spare me. When Apple pays as much of their profits in taxes as I do on my income then you might have an argument. As it stands it's not even a discussion.
If you cheat on your taxes, then yeah you'd be subject to fines for past tax evasion. But if you followed the letter of the tax law at the time, and some time later the government decided the law was wrong and changed it, then no you wouldn't be subject to retroactive fines.
You're missing the point. Of course Ireland doesn't want to screw up it's relationship with Apple. Yes Apple and Ireland are happy with the relationship, much the way the way a crook and a fence are happy with their relationship. Ireland is selling tax obligations at a steep discount to Apple for "other valuable considerations" the EU a part owner of those obligations has been sliced out of the deal and is now crying foul.
Old whathisname was running it... What was his name? Steve something...
Anyway, they were such a cool company then. They came out with life-changing products, they elevated design aesthetics for the industry as a whole, and they didn't get into all of the political crap that old Tim Cook's version of the company does.
Between spending company cash and time trying to promote his political beliefs, putting out lackluster products that stagnate in the market, and now getting caught flipping the bird to Europe over getting caught avoiding tax laws, Apple's not looking too good these days.
A couple more years like this and Apple might even take the bold step of letting 3rd party manufacturers build their products, and then slapping an Apple logo on it (Remember those awesome Mac knockoff's before Jobs stepped back in?)
Tim should step down... He doesn't have the skills nor the demeanor to run this company.
Whoops! Forgot his latest brilliant idea: Remove the headphone jack and make consumers replace all of their perfectly good working equipment again.
Wasn't Apple into recycling heavily also? Wonder how much plastic and metal will end up in the landfills due to this latest genius move...