Living in Denmark and having worked for the tax system (SKAT) here I am glad that this ruling was overturned. I believe that Margrethe Vestager should clean up the tax system here in her home country of Denmark before trying to clean up the tax system in Ireland. The tax system here is slow, corrupt, beaurocratic, and prosecutes the weak and vunerable, while letting people who are famous, or people who owe billions that are hard to prosecute off the hook.
Apple has €13bn Irish tax bill overturned
61–70 of 485 posts
Re: Apple has €13bn Irish tax bill overturned
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are the benefits of a fortune 500? Who are the beneficiaries? The main ones would be investors and management, including a subset of employees. Given the tax loopholes that are often taken advantage of, I would hardly say that the countries or cities they reside in are beneficiaries in as far as tax income, though they definitely have a hub effect of drawing people into the locations they are in. Whether that is…
> Who are the beneficiaries? Literally any entity they interact with. And F500's interact a lot with a lot of entities!
As long as there is shareholder before stakeholder, I don't see this as a good argument.
Take Amazon. Employees in warehouses are low wage and hire and fire jobs. The CEO is getting richer and richer, not everyone is profiting as well as it could be.
What Europe would need is to excel in computer science as well as design and engineering. The topic is pretty lacking here and would need a push.
The result would be companies that could deliver experiences equal to the US or better. Take Facebook, a European version with the data protection laws here would be infinitely better.
Re: Apple has €13bn Irish tax bill overturned
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well looks like last year they paid $10.5B in taxes (on 65.7B profits) so which part is wrong? https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/financials?p=AAPL
16%. Niiiice.
Add sales taxes on their products, payroll taxes on their employees, capital gain taxes on the dividends they issue.... and Apple is generating much more than 16% of their profits in government revenue vs. a world where Tim Cook closes up shop tomorrow.
Re: Apple has €13bn Irish tax bill overturned
#64Irish media spinning this as a win for the irish people, while there are ongoing talks of increasing income tax on normal people to help cover the cost of this pandemic. Disgraceful.
No tax was owed to the Irish people from Apple. It was European commisson overreach. [Edit: been this comment is oscillating between -1 and 1 like a yoyo.]
It was hardly overreach by the Commission. They are entitled to ensure companies pay their fair share of tax, and that Member States don't undercut each other.
Re: Apple has €13bn Irish tax bill overturned
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are the benefits of a fortune 500? Who are the beneficiaries? The main ones would be investors and management, including a subset of employees. Given the tax loopholes that are often taken advantage of, I would hardly say that the countries or cities they reside in are beneficiaries in as far as tax income, though they definitely have a hub effect of drawing people into the locations they are in. Whether that is…
>What are the benefits of a fortune 500? Who are the beneficiaries? The main ones would be investors and management, including a subset of employees. Workers are also a pretty big beneficiary: look how well workers at recent Fortune 500 entries like FAANG are paid. Even after accounting for subsidised health and education benefits the average European developer is still lucky to earn even half of what the average US…
European developers don't need to live in areas though, where they have to pay 2 million dollars for a house and they have social security and health care. This lessens your argument.
Re: Apple has €13bn Irish tax bill overturned
#66Transfer pricing and tax havens are draining money out of the economies of most European countries, breaking the virtuous cycle where consumer spending also leads to salaries, taxes and more investment in the community, to keep the economy going - instead we have a shrinking middle class, as the fuel is drained from the engine. Ireland, Luxembourg and certain other countries are complicit in this. We clearly need bet…
>Transfer pricing and tax havens are draining money out of the economies of most European countries, breaking the virtuous cycle where consumer spending also leads to salaries, taxes and more investment in the community, to keep the economy going - instead we have a shrinking middle class, as the fuel is drained from the engine. An alternative interpretation is that the high degree of taxes and regulations in Europe…
Yet happiness, productivity, and lifespan are all higher in Europe. Regulation is different, and in some areas less.
Who are you optimizing for?
Re: Apple has €13bn Irish tax bill overturned
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
16%. Niiiice.
Add sales taxes on their products, payroll taxes on their employees, capital gain taxes on the dividends they issue.... and Apple is generating much more than 16% of their profits in government revenue vs. a world where Tim Cook closes up shop tomorrow.
Indeed - tax the little man from all angles, not the big corporation.
Re: Apple has €13bn Irish tax bill overturned
#68Living in Denmark and having worked for the tax system (SKAT) here I am glad that this ruling was overturned. I believe that Margrethe Vestager should clean up the tax system here in her home country of Denmark before trying to clean up the tax system in Ireland. The tax system here is slow, corrupt, beaurocratic, and prosecutes the weak and vunerable, while letting people who are famous, or people who owe billions t…
What's wrong with the Danish tax system? Do you have gripes on the technical side, how its hard to use as a consumer or what?
Re: Apple has €13bn Irish tax bill overturned
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are the benefits of a fortune 500? Who are the beneficiaries? The main ones would be investors and management, including a subset of employees. Given the tax loopholes that are often taken advantage of, I would hardly say that the countries or cities they reside in are beneficiaries in as far as tax income, though they definitely have a hub effect of drawing people into the locations they are in. Whether that is…
>What are the benefits of a fortune 500? Who are the beneficiaries? The main ones would be investors and management, including a subset of employees. Workers are also a pretty big beneficiary: look how well workers at recent Fortune 500 entries like FAANG are paid. Even after accounting for subsidised health and education benefits the average European developer is still lucky to earn even half of what the average US…
> better to lift the worse-off up than pull the better-off down.
Given a fixed amount of resources, this isn't a choice but a matter of fact. You cannot do one without causing the other. This then becomes deciding what the lowest level you're comfortable having your fellow countryperson living at with the requisite cost to those with the means.
Re: Apple has €13bn Irish tax bill overturned
#70This is a disgraceful verdict for the Irish people. We laid ourselves bare as a tax haven for MegaCorps, and now we're not even seeing the benefits.
Except for thousands of jobs?