Posted on 09/10/2024 10:56:32 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Apple has been ordered to pay Ireland €13bn (£11bn; $14bn) in unpaid taxes by Europe’s top court, putting an end to an eight-year row.
The European Commission accused Ireland of giving Apple illegal tax advantages in 2016, but Ireland has consistently argued against the need for the tax to be paid. The Irish government said it would respect the ruling. […]
A separate European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on Tuesday also brought a long-running case with Google to a close, with the company ordered to pay a €2.4bn (£2bn) fine for market dominance abuse. […]
Apple said in a statement: “This case has never been about how much tax we pay, but which government we are required to pay it to. We always pay all the taxes we owe wherever we operate and there has never been a special deal. The European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the US. We are disappointed with today’s decision as previously the General Court reviewed the facts and categorically annulled this case.” […]
The Irish government has argued that Apple should not have to repay the back taxes, deeming that its loss was worth it to make the country an attractive home for large companies.
Ireland, which has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the EU, is Apple’s base for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Although corporation tax rates for businesses are set nationally, and are not subject to the EU’s jurisdiction, the trade bloc does have extensive powers to regulate state aid and in this case, it argued that by applying very low tax rates to Apple, Ireland was granting it an unfair subsidy. …
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Oh, otay! They’ll get right on it before they’re ‘summoned’ to appear.
I guess Apple’s efforts to avoid US taxation was not as foolproof as Apple thought it was.
Apple cuts off sales to EU Countries.... If you want an iPhone in Europe go to Norway, Switzerland or the UK (In spite of Chairman Keir)
Wait, the Irish government says it isn’t owed the money and doesn’t want it. But the EU is forcing them to take it because it says their tax rate is too low?
No; this was a deal between Ireland and Apple that the EUSSR did not like. Remember, draconian taxation is one of the pillars of the left.
Not to mention, the EUSSR conflates the terms “tax evasion” and “tax avoidance”.
That’s it in a nutshell.
The EUSSR has been pressuring Ireland for decades to “harmonize” its tax rates with the larger EU countries. This of course will utterly destroy any advantage to doing business with Ireland and impoverish the country.
I, also, would be reluctant to receive a multi-billion-dollar payout.
Accidentally "elected" yourself some authoritarians and a dictator, did you? The longer it takes you to fix that, the more people are going to die. Do try to make sure it isn't so much the nicer people that do the dying!
Meanwhile, say good-bye to your tourism and business revenue.
Tell EU to shove it.
That’d end up being a one-time payout. All the revenue that Ireland could have gotten due to increased economic activity thanks to low taxation would dry up, and Apple could (would?) completely pull out of the country.
The EU is a group of unelected dictators!
Ireland’s current government are all EU toadies. That call would have to come from the people.
If the EU had a big enough bureaucracy to enforce it, they would for every european (except undocumented immigrants) to breath the exact same amount of air to be fair.
Ireland had a law that did not tax royalty payments. Ostensibly they wanted to attract artists but this also attracted all other kinds of intellectual property.
So companies would set up subsidiaries in Ireland that owned the intellectual property, things like software, advertising algorithms, etc. They would then license that IP to their other subsidiaries. The other non-US operating companies would run at near break-even - those other subsidiaries would carry most of the operating costs like overhead, marketing, inventory, payroll etc. But the bulk of net profits would flow to the IP holder in Ireland, tax free, in the form of a licensing/royalty fee. Often these Irish IP companies would have minimal employees and minimal physical presence. Apple, Google, Meta/Facebook and many others (drug companies and more) set up their overseas operations the same way. So their main operations showed little profit as they structured the deals so that most of the net profits ended up going toward royalty payments in Ireland.
After it was booked as income in Ireland, tax free, it moved to some tax haven such as Cayman.
Then tell Ire Land to shove it too!
The power to tax, is the power to destroy.
No, Apple did not avoid US taxes. They paid taxes in other countries where the goods were made, per international agreements. Apple paid taxes to the USA for profits realized in the USA. Same agreements the USA does for foreign automakers who set up factories in the USA and pay taxes to the USA for cars made here. The EU is trying to retroactively steal tax money from Apple that was already paid to Ireland where they built factories and produced goods. Those goods did not go to the USA, but to Europe and Africa.
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