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EU Finance Ministers Line Up Behind $21B Tax Ruling Against Apple (herald-dispatch.com)
An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes the Associated Press: Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem urged Apple Saturday to "get ready" to pay up, as he and counterparts from other EU nations lined up behind a finding that the technology giant owes billions of euros due to more than a decade of improperly low taxation. Apple's bill could reach 19 billion euros ($21 billion) with interest, and both the company and Ireland, Apple's European headquarters are appealing the European Commission ruling. But on the last day of an EU finance ministers' meeting focused on ways to harmonize tax rules for international companies, Dijsselbloem told reporters that these "have an obligation to pay taxes in a fair way."
"International tax loopholes are a thing of the past," he said. Apple will have to pay back taxes both in the United States and Europe, he added, "so get ready to do that." Philip Hammond, his British counterpart, said the EU was keen "to make sure that international corporations pay the right tax at the right place. That's the fair way to do it, and we are going to make sure it happens."
Austria, France, and Italy are reportedly also watching the case closely.
"International tax loopholes are a thing of the past," he said. Apple will have to pay back taxes both in the United States and Europe, he added, "so get ready to do that." Philip Hammond, his British counterpart, said the EU was keen "to make sure that international corporations pay the right tax at the right place. That's the fair way to do it, and we are going to make sure it happens."
Austria, France, and Italy are reportedly also watching the case closely.
This is where push will come to shove.
You can have whole divisions of lawyers covering each and every aspect of the fine print to the nth level but the bottom line is;
Tax laws, breaks and reductions are not there to be professionally manipulated to the extent that you pay nothing.
Due to loopholes, exploitation and poor oversight megacorporations have had an unfair advantage for decades.
Apple execs will throw a hissy fit because they know they manipulated every legal loophole to pay less. "It's legal" they shout. The intent not to pay tax to any meaningful degree is fucking the rest of us over. The rest of us can decide to call BS and slap you with a fine to pony up what you owe.
Welcome to the iTaxes you owed us and never pay ALL THOSE YEARS -they are magical.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
While this does look bad for Apple/Ireland, the finance ministers of the other EU countries don't really have a say in it. It's a legal matter for the courts to interpret the relevant treaties and these guys should have the sense to shut up until there's a final ruling - doing otherwise looks amateurish and undermines belief in the rule of law (hopefully not justifiably so - but the way they're talking would make anyone wonder).
The EU is ignoring a lot of what makes our justice systems different than 3rd world monarchies, dictatorships or theocracies. If what Apple did was legal in the past, they shouldn't just be able to levy a fine just because the law as written wasn't fair. Sure they can change the laws in place through proper channels but just levying taxes because it "feels right" is just tyranny.
^ And we have a winner...
I agree with the EU in principle, but what they are doing is wrong and worse than what Apple has done... Change the laws going forward, sure, but you can't change the rules after the game has been played...
What trial? Was there a judge involved?
Sig?
So Ireland made a deal with apple about them paying less taxes.
Maybe this deal was against EU regulations, maybe it wasn't.
Why should apple have to pay back taxes to the EU?
If Ireland broke EU regulations, then Ireland is the one who should pay up.
If I unknowingly buy a stolen car and the police find out, I lose the car.
I don't suddenly have to pay an additional fee for having the car for 6 months.
If you don't pay your taxes, there doesn't need to be a judge or trial to collect those back taxes.
Apple could fight this ruling at a hearing, in front of a judge. But they know they'll just lose.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It's what happens when you give up your sovereignty, ie via EU accession. The greedy authorities that you subjected yourself to get to decide things for you.
The correct path, if you don't like this, is to leave the EU, as Britain has chosen to do.
The EU was a stupid idea on multiple fronts, not just this one. For instance, the whole Greek thing would have been a non-issue if they were using drachma rather than Euros...they'd just have devalued their currency to cure the problem. But they don't have the ability to do that, since the ECB would have to be in on that, and they aren't interested in helping out Greece at that level. Then again, the loans would never have been issued at such low interest rates and in such quantities had Greece not been part of the EU and Euro zone. So the dumb keeps on piling up.
Or, the Schengen Area...I probably don't need to speak further on this except to note that it sounded great in theory, but the idea of having someone else essentially in charge of your immigration doesn't work well in practice.
If the US had been structured like the EU, we'd have had much more than one civil war.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Unfair moderation of the parent. I'm Dutch, and completely agree with the sentiment expressed. Dijsselbloem is a hypocrite, as he, as Minister of Finance of the Netherlands has done absolutely nothing to prevent this type of back-dealing with large companies by his department. Ireland is probably the greatest offender of using taxation to screw over the other EU nations, but the Netherlands is a close second.
Sorry, but no. Apple (and Ireland) thought that a certain law was meant to be what they wanted it to be, and now got informed that they got it wrong.
Like, say, you going to jail for killing your mother in law because according to your definition she's not a human being, and the law disagreeing with you.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
They can still set whatever tax rate they like. What they cannot do is set a different tax rate for a specific company.
The US funds their 'Greek states' by funneling federal money over to them and reducing their sovereignity even further in the process. 'Schengen' is there in the US -- do you need a passport/visa to cross state lines? Who takes care of immigration in the US? And finally, the only civil war the US had was about leaving the union, a thing we're now going through with Brexit. No war in sight.
I'm not really clear on what you're arguing for here. Should the EU be structured more like the US, reduce sovereignity, and start building up the military to force Great Britain in line? Or should the US get rid of the dollar so that every state can devalue their own currency when they're in trouble? Please explain what the right structure of the EU would be, one that the US can follow without civil wars.