Apple To Invest $2B Building Green Data Centers In Ireland and Denmark 82
stephendavion writes Amid deeper investigations into how Apple may be using its operations in Ireland as a means for tax avoidance on tens of billions of dollars in profit, the iPhone maker has announced that it will spend nearly $2 billion (€1.7 billion) to develop two new 100% renewable energy data centers in Europe. The centers — which will use wind power and other green fuel sources — will be located in Athenry, Ireland, and Viborg, Denmark. Apple said that they will power services such as apps in the App Store, Siri and iMessage. Both locations will run on 100 percent renewable energy and Apple said they will have the 'lowest environmental impact' of its data centers thus far. It will also be following in the footsteps of companies like Facebook, which has also built sustainable data center operations out in Europe.
Re:Why not in the US? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because they already have major data centers in the US and want more of them closer to their customers in Europe?
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You are wrong on all accounts, but that is perhaps the reason you are posting anonymously?
I don't know about Ireland, but as I am from Denmark, I know about the reason here.
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Trust me, they don't get a tax break here, because no one does. Everything in Denmark revolves around 'paying taxes', even when a previous liberal government said they would halt the taxes, they didn't.
The reason, or one of the reasons, they chose Denmark was that we are a power-wise green country, and we can get a lot of power from su
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You should read up on the irish-dutch sandwitch tax dodge. That is exactly what they are doing.
http://www.investopedia.com/te... [investopedia.com]
Mod Parent UP Please! (Score:2)
You should read up on the irish-dutch sandwitch tax dodge. That is exactly what they are doing.
http://www.investopedia.com/te... [investopedia.com]
"DEFINITION of 'Double Irish With A Dutch Sandwich'
A tax avoidance technique employed by certain large corporations, involving the use of a combination of Irish and Dutch subsidiary companies to shift profits to low or no tax jurisdictions. The double Irish with a Dutch sandwich technique involves sending profits first through one Irish company, then to a Dutch company and finally to a second Irish company headquartered in a tax haven. This technique has allowed certain corporations to dramatically reduce t
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Why would the price go up? They can simply wind down some coal or gas powered plants and pass the savings on to the customers. I smell shenanigans on the side of your power company, your prices would've gone up regardless. In one version it would be 'because Apple is using more power than they told us' in the other, it would be 'because Apple isn't using all the power they told us'.
Re:Why not in the US? (Score:4, Informative)
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I'm sure jobless people in Ireland will be happy to lose a few trees if they can put some food on the table of their families.
Right. At the expense of others. The whole system is rotten, it's not just Apple.
If the US wants to keep jobs in the US then they also need to be more competitive
It's hard to be more competitive than someone willing to sell out their country's future and everyone else's too. I thought we the USA had already proven that?
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http://www.investopedia.com/te... [investopedia.com]
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Not exactly (Score:1)
Nope. These placements are being offered as bribe money in kind to lessen or totally eliminate the fines Apple should have to pay for playing a tax evasion shell game with their massive global profits.
If you really think these being placed in Ireland (Double Irish) and the Netherlands (Dutch Sandwich) just by sheer accident, you may be one of the most Pollyannaish fanboys queuing in front of t
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In proper Slashdot form, I'm just speculating with no real information on the matter, but I think it something to do with a quantity of eggs being put in a particular number of baskets.
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Apple fronted GT Technologies the money to build the facility in order to build displays for Apple products, and requred GT itself as collateral. Apple then chose not to buy GT-manfuactured Sapphire screens, and acquired GT when they could not pay back the money fronted. Tell me again how that's an honest business practice.
You forgot the part where GT didn't actually manage to produce the Sapphire Crystal displays that they had promised they could deliver. And you forgot the part where GT management lined their pockets with stock options, making sure that they made their money, no matter whether the company did well or not.
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it would be monumentally stupid to put a data center that serves European costumers at the other end of a transatlantic cable
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Data centers are a cost. Revenue is recognized elsewhere.
Re: Why not in the US? (Score:2, Insightful)
The US has the highest effective corporate tax rate, so yes, Denmark has to be lower.
The main difference is that the high rates exist here mainly to keep small businesses from becoming competitive with the multinationals (which buy off the politicians with campaign money in exchange for favorable treatment).
And, yes, Apple is trying to reduce its US footprint wherever it doesn't really matter. The only surprise is that they haven't bought Cuba (yet).
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You've confused statutory with effective rate.
The US has one of the lowest effective rates (how much the corporation actually pays after deductions, etc.), but one of the highest statutory rates (the worst theoretical possible rate that a corporation would pay if it had zero deductions and enormous profits).
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Current cite demonstrating US having one of the lowest effective rates?
BTW, your definitions of effective rate and statutory rate are flat out wrong. Effective rate is the tax paid and accrued on net income on a financial accounting basis. The statutory rate is the rate of tax paid on net income on a tax accounting basis. The fact that there is a difference between the two is an indictment of how the tax system is written. It has nothing to do with having zero deductions.
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Look -- I'm here in Europe, so from a selfish standpoint that's fine and dandy. But why the hell not in the US? Somehow I smell shenanigan.
So they can "sell" the usage of these data centers to other divisions of Apple, thereby funneling profits to Ireland resulting in reduced taxes.
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But why the hell not in the US? Somehow I smell shenanigan.
Umm...they're doing both. They announced a 2900-acre US-based solar farm [slashdot.org] almost two weeks ago. This announcement is following on the heels of that one and looks to be a bit larger in scale (possibly because they don't already have smaller facilities in Europe like they've had for awhile in the US?). There's no reason why they have to choose either the US or Europe when they have the resources to do both.
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Umm...they're doing both. They announced a 2900-acre US-based solar farm almost two weeks ago.
Yes, they're siting it on a former dry farm. So they're destroying sustainable agriculture for the benefit of their sustainable power supply. But they won't be reducing the demand for agriculture, so someone else will spin up a farm somewhere else, probably using water. Pretty shitty site. Meanwhile there's BLM land up here not that far north of the site which is only currently being used for clear-cutting.
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Given that the market is already oversaturated with supply, suggesting that the loss of a low-yield source will necessarily create a vacuum that must be filled is a rather disingenuous argument.
Specifically, dry farming is an inherently low-yield form of agriculture (and one which has a history of leading to dust storms and erosion in the areas where it's practiced, I'll add, since it eliminates ground cover), and the US already has a massive surplus of food supply each year (which is why we waste so much o
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Tax dodge. Taking advantage of treaties between Ireland, Denmark, and the EU to avoid paying taxes on their profits.
http://www.investopedia.com/te... [investopedia.com]
Other green fuel sources. (Score:4, Funny)
which will use wind power and other green fuel sources
Green fuel sources like, for example, soylent green.
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Or green-painted coal.
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So, from a concept expressed by: one number, the "%" sign, and one word, you managed to not understand the one word and make a stupid comment base on that lack of understanding?
Congratulations on using the "anonymous coward" feature properly.
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I think by modifying the photon torpedoes and launching them into the interior of the sun, you can bring a dying sun back to life, but you have to watch out for neutron drift. It was described on TNG, but I can't remember the details.
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Not in the foreseeable future (next billion-or-so years)
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It would cretainly be (Score:2)
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And I think it's just a crime that replacing batteries is such a pain in the ass and expensive just because they can.
They made the phone thinner at the expense of user-replaceable batteries because buyers care more about phone thickness than about being able to replace batteries. HTH, HAND.
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The greenest "Mac" computer you can have is a hackintosh PC tower in which you can replace components one by one.
Apple to build green data centers (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah sure, paint them green if you want, they're yours.
My theory (Score:1)
My theory is that these are inducements to keep the 'double irish' and 'dutch sandwich' tax dodges available. It seems highly unlikely that Ireland and Netherlands, the two countries that have Allowed apple to avoid hundreds of billions in taxes, and which have suggested that they might change these tax practices, have suddenly become recipients of major investments.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/double-irish-with-a-dutch-sandwich.asp [investopedia.com]
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You do realize that Denmark and The Netherlands are different countries, don't you?
100% renewable energy (Score:1)
But we are green so we are cool people you know.
What it should say: (Score:2)
Apple spends 2 billion in places where they can continue avoid paying US taxes and the governments bend over backwards to treat them like royalty. Anyone who thinks this is about "green power" is delusional.
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Still, something is rotten in the state of Denmark. ;-)