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.

Comments

Re:Its free trade until the cash runs out?

[aussie_a]

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.

My thought

[buss_error]

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.

Re:My thought

[Opportunist]

If taxes are high, usually it means that the poor have relatively high spending power. Because, well, ya know, the finance ministry doesn't eat that money. They use it to spend it on various things. On of those things being social services that ensure the poor have purchasing power. And being poor and wanting to live, they have to spend it. Unlike people who earn enough to save some.

Savings are worthless for the economy. Dead money that doesn't drive any economy, except the financial one. But even they don't benefit because with little money being spent, little revenue is gained which translates into fewer businesses being viable and in turn fewer people having a job. Interest plummets in an attempt to make saving unattractive and investing attractive. Unfortunately people aren't dumb and the strategy hence doesn't work, but I digress.

In the end, and even though it at first looks counter intuitive, high tax means more consumption, and more people being able to buy your crap. So I think you should buy your taxes where you sell your goods, because the reason you could sell your junk in the first place was that these taxes exist.

Re: My thought

[YouGotTobeKidding]

You still think that working hard not smart is what makes people successful. In the past 30 years all tech billionaires made their money by working hard but working SMART and getting lucky.

If you dig a ditch in the morning and then fill it in the afternoon you are working hard... but not smart. Good luck getting rich working hard like that unless you strike oil/gold/etc and were smart enough to have a mineral grant before getting lucky.

Re:Game theory

[ytene]

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.

Re:Its free trade until the cash runs out?

[rtb61]

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.

US government interference

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

0.5% tax rate is fine in US ?

[terminal.dk]

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.

"helping itself"

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Game theory

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Game theory

[geantvert]

"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... )

Re:Its free trade until the cash runs out?

[jandersen]

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?

Re:Game theory

[AmiMoJo]

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.