Ireland accused of giving Apple 'selective advantage'

Eu = Articles of Confederation/dysfunction

The EU is dysfunctional and needs a serious revamp at some point. The problem is the current dysfunction is very much more popular than any reasonable substitute.

Example in the USA: New York pays way more in taxes than it receives in benefits directly paid by the federal government. New York's economy benefits more from earnings in other states. The financial, insurance and cultural business income New York receives from the other 49 states dwarfs the losses in tax dollars. No one in the Euro zone is willing to recognize the long term growth Northern Europe will receive from the South and East. In short, most people are too selfish to see their own rational self interest especially when the pain is current and the benefit is in the future.

The EU needs to be fair. So they need to investigate EVERY COUNTRY IN EUROPE, because they ALL give tax breaks of one form or another to large companies to locate in specific areas.

The UK should be investigated for offering a tax break to the new star wars film where as the smaller independents have to pay full wack. Apple are just a target because they are large and cash rich, but any investigation needs to be fair and the ruling applied to all.

The EU needs to be fair. So they need to investigate EVERY COUNTRY IN EUROPE, because they ALL give tax breaks of one form or another to large companies to locate in specific areas.

Well, OK, but that's why there isn't one single EU economy, but lots of countries. That's no different to, say, the US where sales taxes differ per state, or Switzerland where company and personal tax is set per Canton. All of these examples then charge a sort of general tax on top.

That's what competition is about, so I have no idea how this one is going to be solved. The only thing that could be an issue is Apple having a DIFFERENT benefit than others, I think selective taxation is indeed not permissible.

Scandal

Something should be done about countries that abuse EU tax rules and "launder money" for non-EU companies. It cannot be right that we let foreign non-EU companies getting away with paying 2-7% tax on their EU earnings while we tax our own companies and citizens through the roof. How can an EU company compete in such a system!?

If the countries do not want to play ball the EU tax rules should be changed. We cannot afford this.

The actual issue

Apple, routed their global (excluding US) finances through Ireland (and a series of other states)- in such a manner that the finances were deemed to not be domiciled in any state. Aka- Irish taxes were not applied on the funds- nor were taxes from any other state- because they used every trick in the book to launder their funds- so they could legitimately say they weren't due to pay any tax on it.

They probably haven't broken any actual laws- but they certainly have ridden rough shod over the spirit of the laws, and the spirit of equity in the collection of taxes.

It is not fair that a large multinational, such as Apple, has manipulated tax law to give itself an effective tax rate of close to zero. It is not fair on tax payers in the countries where they do business- and it is not fair on the reputation of Ireland- who have had the misfortune to have been associated with this behemoth.

A fair and equitable solution- would be to enumerate Apple's global business as per the countries they are active in. Ringfence the funds (in their totality) and garnish an agreed sum (say 25% of their gross retained profit)- which would then be divvied out amongst the states in which they conduct business, on a pro-rata basis.

I don't see why I, as an Irish tax payer, pay an effective tax rate of approaching 60% on all earnings over 32k- when Apple are allowed get away with these shenanigans.

What they have done is immoral, and while most probably legal within a strict interpretation of the law, most certainly not in keeping with the spirit of the law- and most probably considered as criminal behaviour by most ordinary mortals, who are getting shafted by tax collectors..........

The smear is obviously working

There is absolutely no evidence that Ireland has offered Apple favourable tax rulings - both the Revenue Commissioners in Ireland and Apple insist that there are no special tax deals for Apple - the same rules apply to Apple as apply to any other company. But Brussels will take 12-18 months to investigate this, meanwhile leaving a cloud over the whole issue. The consistency and predictability of Ireland's tax code has been a factor in Ireland's FDI strategy, and a long drawn out investigation that will probably fail to find anything doesn't help.

Ireland's rules on "tax residency" for companies are based on where the company is managed from, rather than where it is incorporated - this means that some of Apple's subsiduaries aren't tax-resident anywhere, because even though they are owned and managed from Cupertino, the US doesn't consider them tax resident there because they are incorporated in Ireland. Ireland has recently changed it's laws so that any company that is incorporated in Ireland that isn't tax resident somewhere else will be considered tax resident in Ireland - presumably there was a LOT of lobbying to prevent the US government introducing a law that would have allowed to pick up these "state-less" companies, but in the long run, these US companies are going to come under more pressure to pay taxes to the IRS than to EU governments - indeed, if anything, the more they end up paying to EU Governments, the more unhappy the US will be about not getting its share!