31–40 of 76 posts
> It’s starting to pay the funds
You know, I was fined for not paying my installments (not my taxes! just my installments) in 2017 and these guys didn't pay their back taxes for two bloody years and were not charged hefty penalties and interest for it. Really, blood boiling unfair.
Sadly, the government has to accept it. Damn EU! Destroying our country.
The EU bailed Ireland out a couple of years ago. Perhaps you should realize that the "tax break" and their "double sandwich" wouldn't be possible WITHOUT the EU.
Nevertheless I feel compelled to nitpick at the statement that the EU bailed Ireland out.
I believe the most important components of the so-called bailout instrumented by the IMF, ECB, and EU were that:
A. Ireland was forced to turn about 65bn euro of private (banking) debt into public debt [for scale: our national debt was 36bn a couple of years before]
B. The Irish government was allowed to run an _enormous_ budget deficit for many years
It's weird that the EU has a monetary union, but so much difference in corporate income tax rates. Great that IE is 12%, but this "competition" is BS in the sense that they needed the higher-tax countries to bail them out just a few years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-2008_Irish_banking_crisis It's a leak in the EU system, and it needs to be plugged. Just imagine what a unified income tax rate in the EU wou…
>they needed the higher-tax countries to bail them out just a few years ago: You have that the wrong way around. The Irish taxpayers, unwillingly, covered the massive gambling losses of private individuals and companies(including a group of businesses called "banks") who were playing in the (German-lead US-style) light-touch bank de-regulation "bank-casinos" of Europe. The "casinos" in Ireland had a disproportionate…
It's weird that the EU has a monetary union, but so much difference in corporate income tax rates. Great that IE is 12%, but this "competition" is BS in the sense that they needed the higher-tax countries to bail them out just a few years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-2008_Irish_banking_crisis It's a leak in the EU system, and it needs to be plugged. Just imagine what a unified income tax rate in the EU wou…
That's because it's a monetary union, not a fiscal union.
> Great that IE is 12%, but this "competition" is BS in the sense that they needed the higher-tax countries to bail them out just a few years ago:
That's based on a severe misconception. The Irish headline rate is 12.5%, but the effective rate doesn't differ much from that. Meanwhile, you have countries like France with a much higher headline rate, but an effective rate much lower than the Irish one.
So no. Ireland was not bailed out by higher tax countries. Moreover, our corporate tax rate had nothing to the financial crises, whose roots in Ireland can ultimately be traced back to the ECB keeping interest rates artificially low to help with German reunification.
It's weird that the EU has a monetary union, but so much difference in corporate income tax rates. Great that IE is 12%, but this "competition" is BS in the sense that they needed the higher-tax countries to bail them out just a few years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-2008_Irish_banking_crisis It's a leak in the EU system, and it needs to be plugged. Just imagine what a unified income tax rate in the EU wou…
> It's weird that the EU has a monetary union, but so much difference in corporate income tax rates. That's because it's a monetary union, not a fiscal union. > Great that IE is 12%, but this "competition" is BS in the sense that they needed the higher-tax countries to bail them out just a few years ago: That's based on a severe misconception. The Irish headline rate is 12.5%, but the effective rate doesn't differ mu…
That's Australian dollars, it's €13B.
[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/r-ireland-expects-apple-back-...
It's weird that the EU has a monetary union, but so much difference in corporate income tax rates. Great that IE is 12%, but this "competition" is BS in the sense that they needed the higher-tax countries to bail them out just a few years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-2008_Irish_banking_crisis It's a leak in the EU system, and it needs to be plugged. Just imagine what a unified income tax rate in the EU wou…
>they needed the higher-tax countries to bail them out just a few years ago: You have that the wrong way around. The Irish taxpayers, unwillingly, covered the massive gambling losses of private individuals and companies(including a group of businesses called "banks") who were playing in the (German-lead US-style) light-touch bank de-regulation "bank-casinos" of Europe. The "casinos" in Ireland had a disproportionate…
It is true that those banks had various lenders in Germany/France/wherever, and that the consequences of an all-out collapse of the Irish economy would have had negative effects in those countries as well.
But presenting it as some sort of altruistic sacrifice to allow them to rescue Ireland from a potato-based future is just adding moral bankruptcy to the other.
When will countries finally understand that it's better to co-operate them too compete against another? Multinational companies are playing them against each other.
You are right but it will never happen. It only takes one country to break ranks and the game is back on again.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Bear in mind that countries like France have even lower rates in practice due to various loopholes for their largest corporations Ireland also has lower rates in practice due to allowances for their largest corporations: Apple's allowance afforded them an effective rate of <1%, hence the $21 billion.
Ireland is not the only loophole: Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands made "special" deals with large corporations, too. https://www.ft.com/content/7ce5bf96-a83d-11e7-ab55-27219df83...
When the Apple ruling first came out there was talk of it being the first of others, but with how much resistance the Irish government have put up, it's hard to see them coming to fruition at this stage.
> Apple was hit by the European Commission with a $21 billion bill for back taxes in 2016. > It’s starting to pay the funds You know, I was fined for not paying my installments (not my taxes! just my installments) in 2017 and these guys didn't pay their back taxes for two bloody years and were not charged hefty penalties and interest for it. Really, blood boiling unfair.
One year I made a mistake on my taxes and my refund was $1000 more than it should have been. Six months later not only was I fined for the mistake and forced to pay back the $1000, I had to pay interest on that $1000. (Canada)
This year when the government owed me $6000 in overpaid taxes, why didn't they pay me interest on my money they were holding...?