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US Government Seeks To Intervene in Apple's EU Tax Appeal (reuters.com)
The U.S. government has sought to intervene in Apple's appeal against an EU order to pay back up to 13 billion euros ($14.8 billion) in Irish taxes, Reuters is reporting. From a report: iPhone maker Apple took its case to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe's second-highest, in December after the European Commission issued the record tax demand saying the U.S. company won sweetheart tax deals from the Irish government which amounted to illegal subsidies. The decision was criticized by the Obama administration which said the European Union was helping itself to cash that should have ended up in the United States. The Trump administration, which has tentatively proposed a tax break on $2.6 trillion in corporate profits being held offshore as part of its tax reform, has not said anything in public about the case.
He will bring all that money Apple has back to the US and everybody will get a free iPhone! But it will only work on Verizon. But hey, that's better than nothing!
MAGA!
I think you had too much beer at your Forth of July picnic. Go to bed and sleep it off. Tomorrow's a work day.
Unless Europe is breaking any treaties, America can't do shit to this European incorporated company except pay it's tax bill. If America tries to retaliate they'll open up a full on trade war with Europe. Europe is very much anti-American/anti-Republican/anti-Trump right now. It's politicians would love nothing more than a demonstration of them sticking it to the yanks. It's guarantee them elections for the next 10 years. So bring it on. Somehow I doubt Apple is going to stope trading in Europe. Although it's 256B war chest might get a bit smaller.
Apple, Burger King, and countless others use off shore shelters to protect profits from US taxes.
My thought is that if you sell it here, you pay taxes here. Are taxes too high? Grover Norquest will say yes. Others will say no. I say it doesn't matter what the tax rate is if companies can avoid paying it at all. It makes me sick to think there are some millionaires out there that pay less in total tax than I do. Not less as in percentage, I mean less in absolute dollars. I paid over $35K in taxes last year. There are over one hundred estimated millionaires that paid less than that.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
False and false. The rules were not changed. It was found that Ireland illegally did not follow the pre-existing laws governing taxation within the EU in order to bribe Apple to operate out of that country. Ireland most certainly knew this, and Apple most certainly should have known this unless they were completely and utterly inept. In addition, all MEPs that make up the EU parliament are voted in by their respective local constituencies, if you live in the EU you have a vote on your local MEPs to represent you. I dislike quangos, but the EU certainly isn't one. What I do wonder is why you choose to mouth off giving such obviously false information?
Cite your sources.
You likely can't; you have that the wrong way round.
As a matter of fact, the US sets a precedent by heavily fining non-US companies at every opportunity. For example, when the LIBOR rate-rigging story broke, the New York AG fined British banks. Did any country in the EU fine JPMorgan over the insane dealings of the London Whale?
If you step back and look at this, what you find is that US multinational companies play one EU state off against the rest so that they are able to off-shore their profits without paying tax.
Or maybe you'd like this story, http://uk.reuters.com/article/..., about Starbucks, the US Coffee Shop chain, that paid no Corporation Tax on UK. From the article: "Accounts filed by its UK subsidiary show that since it opened in the UK in 1998 the company has racked up over 3 billion pounds ($4.8 billion) in coffee sales, and opened 735 outlets but paid only 8.6 million pounds in income taxes..."
What is likely to have happened in the background is that Apple and the US Government have discussed a way that the US Government would intervene on Apple's behalf in the EU. In return, Apple would then repatriate some of their vast off-shore, un-taxed profits so that in return the US government could tax it. Win-win. Apple don't have to pay the full amount; the US government gets some tax revenue.
There's a simple solution to this - tax profits in the country where they originate. If a multinational wants to trade in a country, they pay her taxes. End of.
Technically speaking it would be against the constitution. The US government would be acting specifically on behalf of a single corporation not paying tax against the interests of all other corporations who are paying tax. They can appeal on a principle that affects all companies not to suit one company only. Right now the 'fuck the EU' as the US calls it, is pretty pissed off with all the messes created by the US to feed it's imperialistic ambitions, the insatiable greed of major US corporations, mussie refugees, the crippling of Russian trade, extortionate demands to buy US military equipment, demands that the EU import energy supplies from the US and pay more, the US hacking their digital infrastructure and the US playing buddy buddy with the funders of global terrorism.
The only way the US could do worse right would be buy arresting European political activists and publicly executing them (something for which NATO has plans set it place). Right now the US arrogantly demanding the US companies should not pay taxes on revenue earned in Europe because those are American taxes they have no right to, would be a really stupid thing to do. The US seems set on a course of self destruction and there seems to be nothing that can be done to stop it, just isolate to them and protect the rest of the world from it.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Technically speaking it would be against the constitution.
When was the last time the American government let something like that stop them? The federal government hasn't cared about the constitution since Lincoln shat on it.
That "retaliation" has already happened. See, e.g., Volkswagen, BP. You can always find companies doing something wrong, but there's a lot of latitude as to which ones to investigate and screw over.
The US regime should stop interfering in the affairs of other countries. If they don't, it seems that sanctions would be appropriate, since this is the approach the US empire itself employs, usually in the flimisiest of 'evidence'. At least here, we have strong evidence of regime interference in other's affairs.
I'd love to see the look on Juncker's face if Apple simply stops providing services in the EU. Nearly all the clownery they call the EU Parliament would be shut down. Entire families would be left unable to communicate over the dinner table. Millions of people would be forced to re-learn human speech. It would be chaos.
It is my sincere belief that Apple should not pay a cent but instead hire mercenaries to deal with this theft at as a personal level as this is, and it is personal.
You can't handle the truth.
I assume the US government thinks that 0.5% average tax is fine ?
If they have that opinion, I think they should let everybody know, and make sure Apple pays just as little in the US.
If not, shut up and let Apple pay what they rightfuly should have done. Be it 10-20 or 30%. Everybody knows 0.5% is wrong.
Any Apple are all to happy to sell their product in the EU so whats your point? They have dodged tax and been given a special helping hand by the Irish gov which is illegal under EU rules to maintain fare competition among the EU countries. Oh and lets not forget that Apple is incorporated in Ireland to dodge paying US tax too.
Not necessarily. Europe has been making a practice of fining major American companies. It's politically popular (in Europe) and it brings them money from people who don't vote in their elections.
Could you name a few examples? Because I am not aware of any. Europe doesn't have politically motivated regulation agencies and kangaroo courts like the USA. All fines in Europe have been for actual violations and typically proportional to the violation. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of companies fined are European.
America could easily retaliate by targeting one or two European companies for similar investigations
The US has a long tradition of extorting large sunsvof money from foreign (usually European) companies for vaguevor exaggerated claims, often even outside of US jurisdiction. I don't think they need to increase that to get the message across that doing business in the USA is risky.
It's alright, we never had great expectations on your intellectual abilities.
what a load of bullshit. How is asking a corporation that makes billions in profit to pay their taxes in the market they operate in, to "help yourself", when what America is doing is literally saying that EU tax money belongs to the US? The American flavor of greed is just unprecedented.
Europe has been making a practice of fining major American companies.
Europe has been making a practice of fining major companies, but for some reason only the American ones hit Slashdot.
It could be because European companies have learned that when EU says something you'd better off following the rules while US companies are used to being above the law from back home.
Go back to watching your country get fucked by Putin, Ivan. You're about as manly as that spoiled man-child Trump.
I know this is alien to someone from the US, but corporations are not above the law in Europe, and neither do they make them.
Different way of doing politics, and I can understand why you're flabbergasted that politicians and corporations are not sitting down together, making laws to fleece the population, but, well, there's different cultures who consider different things valuable. With you it's money, with us it's not being under the thumb of big business.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Were you born yesterday? Or are you perhaps just a regular American? EU companies pay taxes to the US on their US sales, why should Apple not pay taxes to the EU on their EU sales? Oh right - because "all the money is ours"? Yes, you must be an American.
"There's a simple solution to this - tax profits in the country where they originate. If a multinational wants to trade in a country, they pay her taxes. End of."
Actually, this is already the case. The problem is that the companies are designed to minimize their profit by moving the money between various legal entities in other countries. For instance "Starbucks reportedly paid just £8.6m in corporation tax in the UK over 14 years and nothing in the last four years - despite sales of £400m last year ... As part of its tax affairs, the firm (i.e. Starbucks UK) transferred some money to a Dutch sister company in royalty payments, bought coffee beans from Switzerland and paid high interest rates to borrow from other parts of the business." ( http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-pol... )
A load of hogwash, I think. Anyway, what can the US do, in real terms? I don't think most European leaders would let America dictate how tax regulations are enforced; expecially since several of them express open contempt for the Donald. You know, if American companies don't want to comply with EU regulations, they can withdraw from that market - nobody's forcing them to stay, as far as I can see. European, Chinese and Indian companies would be happy to see that happen. You have to comply with the rules where you do your business - European companies trading in the US also have to follow US rules - what is so hard to understand about that?
You'll never see that face. Because it would not happen. There is a trillion dollars at stake for a billion dollars. Unlike you, Apple isn't run by retards and psychopaths.
Fuck off to Somalia and live without taes from government. Or any of the services that are paid for from that. Buy your own security. Your own power. Your own sewerage and water treatment plants. Your own food stocks.
Enjoy.
Personally I would love for Apple to stop trading in Europe :-)
It would mean that the amount of i-Zombies in my country would fall drastically, :-)
from its current number of over 50%
Whenever I want to buy new gear from a shop native to my country, I am Hard pressed to find anything that ISN'T made by Apple.
For me that is unfortunate, because I hate Apple with a passion.
The EU intends to make it so that tax is paid based on global profits but proportional to how much business was done in each EU member state. It's a little more complex than that, but it basically stops all these bullshit "royalties" and other ways of pretending not to make any money.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I think we all wish apple would stop existing everywhere.
So this is an issue between EU and Ireland, got it! Oh but Ireland does not have deep pockets. Lawyer rule #1, go after the deep pockets.
Actually its is multi-billion dollars now with an uncertain future. Big companies hate uncertainty. Right now Apple has leverage, just like Google. If they USE their leverage and tell the EU to piss-off it would hurt them, but would hurt the EU more. Possibly allowing a change that is needed for the good of the EU - as once the EU is seen as anti-business... big business will leave. When the big biz leave small biz are harmed as they no longer have a major buyer of their goods. Thus the economy of the EU would be harmed. Which would harm the EU officials... as shit runs down hit.
It really comes down to how pissed off the ghost of steve handjobs is as Apple has a crap ton of liquid assets to weather the 2 or so year storm it would cause.
Personally I would not be surprised if the US intervention fails that you see 'Apple Inc' pull out of the EU, 'selling all its property in the EU' and telling the EU to piss off... while at the same time a 'Apple EU Inc' crop up to act as a distro for Europe with zero funds outside of sales (all buildings leased, etc via another holding company that is owned by Apple via Int'l cut-outs). Thus if A.EU inc is fined mega-bucks. Apple Inc declares that 'business' bankrupt, fires ALL the employees... and opens up 'FU EU inc' to replace it. Thus saving sales AND protecting themselves from gov sanctioned ransom demands. The EU would have to go along with the fiction as EU proles DEMAND apple products (or google or etc etc) thus if the EU blocked Apple EU from selling Apple Inc products the populace would see the EU as the bad guy not Apple... especially with a marketing campaign (something Apple is a master at) showing the EU 'government' as the bad guys w/ interviews from people who 'lost their job' because of it. I could see Apple getting MS and Google onboard as they too hate the EU 'government' making it impossible for the EU to continue with their ransom demand schemes.
Like it or not the genie is out of the bottle and the real power is now in the hands of corporations. No politician has the balls to severely curtail their power thus mega-rich corps will do what they want. PLUS in most cases the regular joe sees the corps as the good guys in these situation as the EU is being seen as changing the rules whenever they need to bail out a pork-barrel company that is failing.
acting like europe is not a colony of america is just stupid, the fact that you have insightful on your score is a testament of how much this site sucks dick
in most cases the regular joe sees the corps as the good guys in these situation as the EU is being seen as changing the rules whenever they need to bail out a pork-barrel company that is failing.
Can you provide a single example of a company bailed out by the EU?
America keeps fining European companies all the time. Maybe it didn't get to you but European bank had to pay billion in different "fines". Stop to cry...
No different than knowingly receiving stolen goods for an individual. There is a reason they called it the double dutch Irish sandwich - I knew it was illegal and they were just assuming because it was a nation state that everybody would somehow let the big money corporations off the hook because reasons...
Get the proper meaning of "it is/has" and "it owns" (its vs it's).
The US has always been that shit role model that tells every other country in the world what should they do, and if they don't they get bombed.
The US should stop being the bully of the world and stick their nukes in their military flagged ass.
Europe might want to look over at Russia... if the US drops out of NATO, defense spending in Europe would have to triple overnight...
America is in charge for a reason...
Increasingly autocratic European regime headed by Germans is cracking down on free speech, erecting barriers to people attempting to flee the state, raising an army and trying to cover the budget by milking politically expedient sources.
I suspect the Fed sees the (low) estimate of $14 Billion tax as money owed to the US, not the EU.
All that profit offsetting their risks and their claims that the private industry are all risk takers and you claim that they're afraid of any risk???
And, no, this isn't uncertainty. This is the law, it was always the law and was not any different all during this incident. Just because you thought you could get away with bank robbery, you can't claim it's all because you aren't certain whether the law covers that branch of bank.
That sounds like a good idea. Of course, Apple is mostly trying to dodge U.S. taxes by gaming it so their profits appear to be made in Ireland. And if the EU were able to shut down that game, Apple would still save money - but maybe not enough to make it worth while.
Yes, global competition means that a high U.S. corporate tax rate can't hold up. And something will need to be done about that - including hiking other personal taxes to compensate for lowering the corporate rate to be more competitive globally. But then again, foreign corporations have other advantages too - like not having to buy health insurance for their employees. Where's the uproar over that?
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
No, this is just a shakedown. Apple negotiated with Ireland, and then paid the taxes it legally owed to Ireland. Now, the EU is having a hissy fit and shaking down American companies, and demanding that Ireland retroactively change its tax law.
This is such a longstanding European tactic that it's specifically prohibited by our Constitution, the "no ex post facto" laws.
Re "PLUS in most cases the regular joe sees the corps as the good guys in these situation as the EU is being seen as changing the rules whenever they need to bail out a pork-barrel company that is failing."
What can the EU do long term?
Only allow other US OS, phone OS systems, US chip sets in the EU? Products and brands that people have to use at work but don't like?
People in the EU are going to dream of that banned devices and banned OS that the EU blocked and won't allow to connect to any network.
The younger people will want the fashion brand they see on social media. The old people will tell stories of the freedom they once had in their own country to go and buy that US brand and US OS/services.
What life was like before the EU built a digital wall and totally banned some US brands.
Retroactive EU taxes and new laws to ban US products won't keep voters in the EU happy.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Those are some shitty families, then. Probably the most pathetic thing I've read in a while.
What the fuck are you talking about? Europe is well known for bribes in nearly all industries.
Dude you're heavily delusional. Apple, Google et al have exactly 0 leverage vs. EU.
That EU citizens would revolt against the governments if they wouldn't be able to get Apple kind of 'shiny' is ridiculous.
I for one say, rip Apple and others* a new one, and if they want to walk, so be it.
* including 'European' corporations, whatever that means.
"Blah blah blah." - [citation needed]