US Government Seeks To Intervene in Apple's EU Tax Appeal (reuters.com) 75
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.
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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.
Re: Its free trade until the cash runs out? (Score:1)
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 represen
Re:Its free trade until the cash runs out? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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-sho
Re:Game theory (Score:5, Insightful)
"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... [bbc.com] )
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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.
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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 global
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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:Its free trade until the cash runs out? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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.
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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
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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.
Re: Its free trade until the cash runs out? (Score:1)
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It's alright, we never had great expectations on your intellectual abilities.
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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...
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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.
Re: Its free trade until the cash runs out? (Score:1)
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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 whe
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Peanuts. He'll make Europe build the network and pay for it too!
My thought (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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If hard work made you rich then coal workers wouldn't be complaining about not getting a job.
People with a self made fortune like Bill Gates or Markus Persson doesn't raise a fuss about handouts to the poor.
In fact, they appear to be supporting it.
The people screaming bloody murder about it are the entitled bitches who inherited their wealth and never did any honest work their entire life.
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Name one person, only one, who got rich by "working hard". In the past 30 or so years, preferably.
There are only a few ways left to get rich. All of them involve a ridiculous amount of luck. This is, by the way, also the reason the US is in the shape it is in now: People noticed it.
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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.
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You can work as hard and smart as you want and still not get anywhere if luck is not on your side. And since luck is such a deciding factor, people just dump the whole working part and rely exclusively on it.
And, lo and behold, it's by no means any less likely to succeed.
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Mark Cuban and Elon Musk come to mind.
Re: My thought (Score:1)
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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'
US government interference (Score:2, Interesting)
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 ? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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And how do you propose such a system is financed and enforced?
Which system?
The stuff you wanted? It would be financed by those who wanted it of course silly. If you want a school then you finance it / pay for it. If you want to pay for the healthcare you use then you do so, if you want to have a healthcare insurance then you do so, if you don't want any healthcare or can't afford it then that's also an option.
Enforced? Freedom? Preferably just by everyone accepting that as life-style. But if not then by force. I'd pay to have it ~guaranteed/protected. It would still b
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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.
I'm Swedish.
And yes. I'd very much would like to have been able to buy my own security. Both personally and with others.
One don't have to do things oneself because there are no government. Maybe you don't understand shit, most likely because you're a leftard, but the market provides solutions for what you want. You can easily share a drilled hole, pump and filtering with others if you want too. Just as others can pick up your shit and happily provide you food if you pay them for it.
No need for socialist rat
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yeah want a protection pay the local mob...
Or your own police force and military.
Or be it.
"helping itself" (Score:4, Interesting)
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.