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"...The findings are a result of the culmination of a three-year investigation by Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager into tax arrangements for Apple, d

"...The findings are a result of the culmination of a three-year investigation by Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager into tax arrangements for Apple, dating back 25 years..." I have no love in my heart for Apple. At the same time, it's not like they don't have enough lawyers. So I have to assume that anything involving billions of dollars would be strenuously vetted. I might be wrong, but I'm starting from there. And if they were supposed to pay taxes, they were supposed to pay them. Purposefully evading taxes is wrong. Avoiding taxes is another matter. Complex tax codes to change society work because we assume that people will be actively avoiding them. So good for them. They're playing the carrot and stick game that governments like us all to play. If true, this means that they did the right thing that the best-informed legal minds could offer in order to legally avoid taxes. It worked for a while then suddenly the rules changed. And they changed not just for the future, but retroactively. What occurred to cause a rules change? It wasn't the law. It wasn't Apple's behavior. It became a story in the U.S. about how companies are getting away without paying their "fair share". The EC was the one that acted, and the only thing that makes sense to me is that the EC saw an opportunity and appointed a commission. Not arbitration, not a criminal or civil trial. A commission. Quite frankly, this looks like a stick-up. Apple's a big company and can take care of itself. I really hope that the same kind of thing doesn't happen to mid-sized and smaller companies trying to eek it out in the EU. It's not just bad for the companies involved: it's bad for the reputation of the union as a whole. You can't keep changing the rules up if you're trying to tweak regulatory issues to promote long-term growth. Nobody with any sense is going to trust you.

einarfd 10y ago
I'm not convinced that even if Apple have the money and probably employ some of the best tax lawyers around. That they always go for the solution that is unambiguous above board and guaranteed to follow the law. This might be one of the times they went for something that looked good and they thought they could get away with, but that didn't pan out in the end.
- DanielBMarkham 10y ago
  Beats me. We might have to wait 20-30 years for somebody's memoirs to be written to finally hear the rest of it. With this much at stake I seriously doubt there will be a simple narrative. What I am sure of is that anytime the company with the biggest market cap takes a hit like this? Ten thousand other companies are paying very close attention. Even if Apple took a gamble and lost, other folks have to ask themselves when it comes to regulatory issues in the EU, what kinds of gambles they are taking without even knowing it. Of course, I simplified the story to make my general point. In the version with more details, Ireland even had their own investigation and worked everything out with Apple. But the EC decided that wasn't good enough. It's really quite breathtaking. They had to pay 11 years of taxes. How many companies would be able to do that?
- fulldecent 10y ago
  Close. They did something that WAS good and perfectly legal. It was a perfectly valid agreement between consenting adults. Then other countries got jealous and intervened. These are the types of attitudes that are fueling the current separatist movement.
  - Marazan 10y ago
    that was against the laws that one of the parties had signed up to is missing from your statement.

einarfd 10y ago

I'm not convinced that even if Apple have the money and probably employ some of the best tax lawyers around. That they always go for the solution that is unambiguous above board and guaranteed to follow the law. This might be one of the times they went for something that looked good and they thought they could get away with, but that didn't pan out in the end.

DanielBMarkham 10y ago
Beats me. We might have to wait 20-30 years for somebody's memoirs to be written to finally hear the rest of it. With this much at stake I seriously doubt there will be a simple narrative. What I am sure of is that anytime the company with the biggest market cap takes a hit like this? Ten thousand other companies are paying very close attention. Even if Apple took a gamble and lost, other folks have to ask themselves when it comes to regulatory issues in the EU, what kinds of gambles they are taking without even knowing it. Of course, I simplified the story to make my general point. In the version with more details, Ireland even had their own investigation and worked everything out with Apple. But the EC decided that wasn't good enough. It's really quite breathtaking. They had to pay 11 years of taxes. How many companies would be able to do that?
fulldecent 10y ago
Close. They did something that WAS good and perfectly legal. It was a perfectly valid agreement between consenting adults. Then other countries got jealous and intervened. These are the types of attitudes that are fueling the current separatist movement.
- Marazan 10y ago
  that was against the laws that one of the parties had signed up to is missing from your statement.