3 ms·

I think it's quite amusing how Apple(+other companies) and their tax avoidance scheme earned them a fortune in "tax heavens" and now both the EU and the USA are

• cloudjacker 10y ago
  funny thing to say since the US Treasury is criticizing the EU over this abuse of tax law The US and Ireland both signed off on the arrangement that apple and other companies use to avoid tax. Now, a government that didn't exist at the time, is using new case law it has created, to retroactively change the tax laws of the governments underneath it. Think of it as Europe's Marbury v Madison moment
  • icebraining 10y ago
    It's not the EU's fault if Ireland signed incompatible treaties.
  • rtkwe 10y ago
    > Now, a government that didn't exist at the time, is using new case law it has created, to retroactively change the tax laws of the governments underneath it. It's kind of tricky because though the EU as it is today is relatively new Ireland joined the European Economic Community which essentially became the EU. Also whenever that rule came into effect the special rules Ireland gave Apple should have been reevaluated and removed. They've always been against the state aid rule it's just not been tried until now. As for "changing the tax laws of governments underneath it" that's part of being in the EU you give up parts of your national sovereignty in a number of areas for the benefits of being in the open market.
    • rtkwe 10y ago
      > Ireland joined the European Economic Community which essentially became the EU Forgot to finish this sentence: "Ireland joined the European Economic Community which essentially became the EU back in 1973"
• bluecalm 10y ago
  >>Here is to hoping EU politicians fix the tax system and force companies to pay a meaningful tax in the countries where they sell their products. They already did. The tax is VAT and recent changes on electronic services had exactly the goal you mentioned in mind. It's just that the idea of income tax for companies is silly as it requires the tax authority to verify valuations of transactions (for brands, services etc.) and that will never be doable. The fixing would be to get rid of income tax for companies and substitute it with different taxes (like VAT for example).
  • JoshTriplett 10y ago
    > The tax is VAT and recent changes on electronic services had exactly the goal you mentioned in mind. Those changes on electronic services make similarly little sense, as they require a service to apply taxes in the jurisdiction of the consumer rather than in the jurisdiction of the business. (And such regulations disadvantage EU companies, as a non-EU company with no legal nexus in the EU has no obligation to charge such taxes.)
    • wbond 10y ago
      > (And such regulations disadvantage EU companies, as a non-EU company with no legal nexus in the EU has no obligation to charge such taxes.) This is not true. You can read about VAT MOSS and the non union scheme for more info.
      • JoshTriplett 10y ago
        By definition, a company or individual has no legal obligation to care about laws outside their jurisdiction. The EU can say anything it likes about what companies "must" do, but they have no jurisdiction over non-EU companies. (Unless their own country enters into some kind of mutual enforcement agreement, or unless they ship a physical item that has to go through EU customs.)
        • AnAfrican 10y ago