Ireland Will Bring the Fight Over Apple Taxes To the EU Court (digitaltrends.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Digital Trends: The tax debate between Apple, Ireland, and the European Union may escalate in the next few months. According to recent reports, the Irish Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, will bring the debate to the EU court, a move that could trigger a years-long court battle. The battle stems from a European Commission finding that Ireland had been giving Apple tax breaks, something that has attracted a number of multinational employers to Ireland. The EU, however, has ordered the practices to change. After a three-year probe into Ireland's relationship with Apple, the European Commission ordered Ireland to collect $14.5 billion in back taxes from the company. That is the largest state-aid payback demand in history. The decision has been the subject of criticism, particularly from this side of the Atlantic. The U.S. Treasury Department says the decision is a threat "to undermine foreign investment, the business climate in Europe, and the important spirit of economic partnership between the U.S. and the EU." Apple has also vowed to fight against the EU decision, and those appeals will follow the ones already pending in Luxembourg, where the EU is headquartered. Those pending appeals include cases against Starbucks.
The EU is a commonwealth among nations. One deal is that members refrain from competing unfairly against each other. The EU actually enforces these deals. Who would have thought.
Basically the Irish Elites are the petty bourgeoisie of the globalist over-class. They provide Apple etc, with nigh 0% tax environment, and in return receive near San Francisco level salary levels in the city of Dublin, which by rights should have a wage level closer to Manchester.
This is about money, and the ruling class here will do anything to keep their hands on it. If Apple asked them to dig up Croke Park they'd probably do it.
roman_mir excretes:
You're highly delusional. On this side of the Atlantic we pay our taxes and we like it.
When we're ill, unemployed, disabled, homeless etc. the government steps in to help us. That's the unwritten contract we have with our European governments.
Compare and contrast with the US where you have a large underclass of people, who if they're not in prison, cannot afford proper healthcare, food or housing. I'll take the European approach, thank you very much.
Apple, by paying less than 1% of their European profits in tax force everybody else to pay more tax. If I set up business in Ireland, do you think I'll pay less than 1% on my corporate profits?
Answer: No, because I couldn't afford the backhanders to get such a deal.
The self-serving retard that is Tim Cook doesn't seem to understand that concept.
BTW, Tim Cook is toast. Just a matter of time until the street realises he hasn't produced anything useful during his reign. On the contrary, he's turned some good stuff into garbage eg. Macbook Pro, OSX.
The Machine stops.
What do you use to pay for food and shelter then?
You obviously have no background in small business accounting.
He sleeps in his home office (which has a spare bed) and he eats at business meetings with his partner/spouse, and his contractors/children.
By that definition, Ireland is being an honest cop for Apple (and various other large corporate tax dodgers).
Why is Snark Required?