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Apple Appeals EU Tax Ruling, Says It Was a 'Convenient Target' (reuters.com)
Apple has launched a legal challenge to a record $14 billion EU tax demand, arguing that EU regulators ignored tax experts and corporate law and deliberately picked a method to maximize the penalty, senior executives said. From a report on Reuters: Apple's combative stand underlines its anger with the European Commission, which said on Aug. 30 the company's Irish tax deal was illegal state aid and ordered it to repay up to 13 billion euros ($13.8 billion) to Ireland, where Apple has its European headquarters. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, a former Danish economy minister, said Apple's Irish tax bill implied a tax rate of 0.005 percent in 2014. General Counsel Bruce Sewell and Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri outlined in an interview with Reuters at Apple's global headquarters in Cupertino the company's plans for its appeal against the Commission's ruling at Europe's second highest court. The iPhone and iPad maker was singled out because of its success, Sewell said. "Apple is not an outlier in any sense that matters to the law. Apple is a convenient target because it generates lots of headlines. It allows the commissioner to become Dane of the year for 2016," he said, referring to the title accorded to Vestager by Danish newspaper Berlingske last month.
They had to start somewhere, right Luca?
It might as well be one of the worst offenders, ie. You.
No sig today...
No rules where changed retroactively - they were in place when Apple and the Irish government decided the rules did not apply to them and those rules continued to apply ever since. Irish tax law does not trump EU directives agreed to by the government of Ireland and US tax law is utterly irrelevant to the tax obligations of an Irish company.
Every dollar or euro Apple doesn't pay has to be paid by somebody else.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
While it might be unwanted on the moral/ethical compass, tax evasion is not illegal.
It is illegal. That is what defines tax evasion. When legal means are used to avoid paying tax, it is called tax avoidance.
Apple played by the rules, and the Irish government agreed on it
That does not make it legal. By making this arrangement with Apple, the Irish government violated EU directives it had previously agreed upon.
The EU desperately needs more cash, so they try all sorts of things, including these tricks
Enforcing the law in this case will not result in a single cent going to the EU. They are forcing the government of Ireland to collect the taxes Ireland is owed. Moreover, I don't think the EU is desperately in need of cash. I don't know where you get that idea from. The EU budget has been more or less stable for a long time.
This is a sign that the EU is cracking up.
This is a sign that you don't know what you are talking about.
Irish and US tax law are in this case both superseded by EU tax law in this case. So that argument is completely irrelevant in this case.
Remember by becoming a member of the EU the Irish agreed that their tax laws would be compliant with EU law. The commission found that Irish tax law was not compliant with EU law and as EU law is supreme Apple and Ireland are in trouble.
Sorry Apple cry me a river that you can't afford decent tax lawyers.
If you understand the situation, Apple aren't being accused of breaking the law. It's the Irish government who the EU says is in violation of the law by making illegal tax deals to attract companies.
Furthermore, the EU isn't ordering Apple to pay the taxes, it's ordering the Irish government to collect the taxes. While the result is the same, the party being accused of wrongdoing is different.
WRONG, WRONG, and WRONG again.
I will point you to the following article on the supremacy of EU law over national law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I will then point you to the third amendment of the Irish constitution, which enshrined this primacy of EU law into the Irish constitution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The EU has *VERY* strong rules on state aid. The Irish government gave Apple a special tax deal, that was not available to everyone. This has been found to break those state aid rules and is therefore illegal under EU law and as EU law has primacy over Irish law as confirmed by the third amendment to the Irish constitution then it is illegal.
It is amazing the crap people spout about this sort of stuff without the first clue as to what they are talking about.
Arguing that one should not be singled out for misconduct on the premise that everyone else is doing it is ultimately still an admission of guilt.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
...apples have alway been a convenient target.
Eh... Are you seriously equivocating Apple, a multibillion dollar global megacorp with 'liberal do gooders'? Really? Yeah I get it, plenty of liberals use Apple products, but I've never seen people - on the right or on the left - claim that Apple as a company is in any sense liberal. Their tax-evasion as well as lack of any charity work whatsoever are quite well known, so I don't know where this notion of Apple as a 'liberal' company is coming from.
If anything, stories like this further go on to prove that Apple is just as unethical and uncaring as most other companies of their size.
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
What they're doing here is trying to pretend that can legislate tax laws based on the free trade and competiton directives.
Ireland agreed to abide by the EU's rules as a condition for joining. One of those rules is an exceptionally clear one about state aid. Quoth the EU:
State aid is defined as an advantage in any form whatsoever conferred on a selective basis to undertakings by national public authorities
Now, Ireland's free to set a 0.0005% tax rate or whatever it is they do, but they're not free to give one company an advantage over the others. I cannot see any vaguely reasonable argument that selective tax rates are not a breach of state aid rules. Note that there's no exemption for taxation in that rule.
Don't like it? Well, Ireand's free to leave the club because they're a sovereign nation and then they can give state aid of whatever amount they loke to whomsoever they like.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
To point 1: Have you even read a single history book on Europe? The current post-war period is probably the longest stretch of general peace Western and Central Europe has ever had.
To point 2: How is a common market and currency contributing to cultural homogeneity? Is the US homogeneous? Is China? Is Canada?
To point 3: The population of the EU is over 500 million people. Why does 200,000 employees seem so outrageous?
To point 4: There are a common set of rules governing the Common Market.This adds a layer, but the benefits of companies being able to trade on that open market largely unimpeded by tariffs and other trade restrictions more than make up for extra regulation.
To point 5: The European Union is a creature of treaty, a multilateral treaty between all its member states. It isn't a national government, so trying to compare it to one is absurd.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The EU has just recently decided to reinterpret their laws to ban the rules Ireland has had in place for 25 years, and then do so retroactively to arrive at $14B.
People don't reinterpret anything. The laws have been in place and were unchanged. If someone is in legal grey area it's their due diligence to seek clarification. Failing to do that and continuing to work in a law that isn't 100% clear can lead to an unfavourable outcome when an interpretation is sought in the court about a specific circumstance.
This is literally how every law works. But by all means, point me to an interpretation of the law that was given to Apple to allow their practice by the EU courts. When you do also call up Apple because if they had such a thing this would be a very open and shut case for them, which is not what it looks like.