Apple Is Moving Its Entire International iTunes Business To Ireland (billboard.com)

Starting February 5th, Apple will be moving its entire international iTunes business from Luxembourg to its European headquarters in Cork, Ireland, according to a note sent to developers this week. The non-U.S. iTunes business consists of Apple Music and the individual stores for iTunes, iBooks and Apps. Internationally, iTunes is available in over 140 countries, while Apple Music is streaming in roughly 115 territories. Billboard reports: Apple announced its intentions to move its iTunes biz to Ireland in September when it transferred an estimated $9 billion of iTunes assets. At that time it also shuffled all existing developer contracts to Ireland-based Apple Distribution International. Like Luxembourg, Ireland is known for being a low-tax haven for international businesses. Last month, both Apple and Ireland announced they would appeal a record $14 billion tax bill from the European Commission, which earlier found it had been underpaying tax on profits across the European bloc from 2003 to 2014. Apple today is the biggest private employer in Cork, the Irish Republic's second-largest city, with a workforce exceeding 5,500. Economists estimate Apple's Cork operation pumps around $17 billion annually in salaries, tax and investment into the Irish economy.

Comments

So that's, what

[rsilvergun]

Two guys and a duck? They're moving one tax dodge to another tax dodge. Probably to pressure Ireland to fight the EU off. They'll win out in the end, and the loser will be their taxpayers...

Re:So that's, what

[El Cubano]

They'll win out in the end, and the loser will be their taxpayers...

From the summary:

Apple today is the biggest private employer in Cork, the Irish Republic's second-largest city, with a workforce exceeding 5,500. Economists estimate Apple's Cork operation pumps around $17 billion annually in salaries, tax and investment into the Irish economy.

$17,000,000 annually divided by 5,500 employees is over $3,000,000 per employee per annum of economic impact. If that's what it means to be a loser, then please sign me up! I'll talk to my city council and I am relatively certain I can get them on board.

Re:So that's, what

[Anonymous Coward]

Even fictional constructs I don't think get to consider the taxes paid by their employees, taxes paid by the corporation, -and- assets simply owned by the construct ("corporation") as an altruistic contribution to the country they do business in.

$3,000,000 per employee? Your own calculation should tell you this is implausible.

In any case, it doesn't matter. You're isolating the economic impact to specifically where Apple would like you to--Ireland. The reality is that the money "gained" by Ireland is money lost to the U.S., which still requires taxes for operations. Those taxes will then be borne by other corporations and individuals, which will result in, you guessed it, higher prices for other goods, paid by companies world-wide. Gaming the system to play one country against another does not result in a magical cost-free gain to the "winning" country, or to the public at large. It just benefits Apple, creating a race to the bottom among "bidders"--which ultimately means each country's taxpayers, who "bid" with or without their assent, backed by their government's force.

Re:So that's, what

[RandyHill]

Yea, money gained in Ireland is not money "lost to the U.S.". These are profits from international operations, Apple already paid taxes on them in the countries where they were earned. We don't get to tax businesses in other countries because they don't generate costs in the US.

Imagine your US company opens a subsidiary in France. That subsidiary pays 33% in corporate income taxes. If your subsidiary was forced to also pay taxes in the US (California), then your total tax rate is 33% France, 9% California, and 35% federal, giving you about a 60% total tax rate. How well do you think your subsidiary is going to do competing against French companies when it has nearly double the tax rate, and barely is able to reinvest a third of it's profits?

US companies are only successful internationally because they don't have to bring profits back and can park them in low tax havens like Ireland. If that was ever taken away it wouldn't generate more taxes, it would decimate the ability of US companies to expand internationally. There would be a huge incentive to re-incorporate overseas to escape what would be the worst corporate tax system ever devised.

Remember, corporate income taxes are a tax on new capital, it's like eating our seed corn. Corporate income taxes are the dumbest possible way to tax, they are a tax on investment, new business formation, etc, leading people to invest less, create fewer jobs, etc. This year it's likely to pass a tax holiday that will allow repatriation of foreign profits at low rates, and at least $2 trillion dollar in capital will come back in the US. The question we should ask is, why a holiday, why not just abolish it?

Federal corporate income taxes accounted for only 9% of all federal tax receipts. Abolish it, and increase dividend and capital gains rates to regular income tax rates, and it would generate more tax revenues. Now you'd have a system where investment was no longer taxed, just when it was consumed, leading to more investment, more jobs and a higher standard of living.

Re:Trump's not gonna be happy...

[ShanghaiBill]

I expect a Twitter storm within hours on this one. Something about taxes and jobs.

These jobs are moving from Luxembourg to Ireland. Trump only cares about jobs moving out of America. An obvious remedy is to avoid creating jobs in America in the first place.

Re:Trump's not gonna be happy...

[KeensMustard]

We specifically elected the least sexual predatory person between the two. Hillary is a straight up rapist enabler.

Number of people Hillary has raped:0. Number of people Donald has raped: probably more than 1. Number of people Donald has molested, by his own admission: many.

Trump maybe did a few less than savory things, but I don't see compelling evidence that he committed rape.

So essentially, your evidence that he is not a molester/rapist is that you personally can't believe it. Well, that's powerful testimony indeed.

Re: Trump's not gonna be happy...

[pslytely psycho]

Yeah, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Regan, Bush, Clinton, Bush Obama, all were smoother liars...Well maybe not Nixon, he was just an asshole. And Carter was way too honest for politics...
But with Trump, We had to create an entirely new brand of lie! Alternative Facts.

Nixon would of loved that phrase!