As an Irish person, I can only look on in bewilderment. Yes, it's certain that Apple is getting a sweet deal on tax. The tax that's under discussion is for the

As an Irish person, I can only look on in bewilderment. Yes, it's certain that Apple is getting a sweet deal on tax. The tax that's under discussion is for their "European Sales Office" which was allowed to repatriate profits to some "Head Office" in the sky which was not subject to tax. I guess what this all boils down to is the taxation on these sales within Europe, so the whole "Designed in California, made in China" argument is moot, since they are "Sold in Europe". Thems the rules and by internationally accepted standards they are reasonable. But, to say that Ireland is owed 15 Billion is disingenuous in the extreme. The EC does not (yet) have jurisdiction over our taxation, so we can effectively tax them however we damn well like. That's why this is being spun as a "competition" issue - the contention is that Apple got a deal that other companies couldn't have got. The public finances are hurting a lot in Ireland the last few years so the thought of trousering such a huge amount is indeed appealing, but if this revolves around the ethics of Apple's taxation, there's also counter-balancing ethics around the fact that we didn't actually do anything to earn it, aside from perhaps providing a low-tax platform for Apple to sell into Europe. So to whom is the tax owed? To "Europe" it would seem. But Europe doesn't collect its own taxes. So they expect us to be their tax collector? WTF seriously guys? Apple could easily give us the money without batting an eyelid. In fact I'd like it if they did just "give" it to us, but the format of the exchange under discussion is one that undermines our sovereignty all other foreign investment programmes that we have got going on. Then there's the whole thing of them telling us we can spend the money however we want, which everybody just knows is a PR stunt to try and force our hand. As soon as we take it, there'll be some new eurocrat standing on a podium telling us something else about how it has to be paid into some European fund or other. In this light I believe Apple's position that the EC are just making it up as they go along carries some water. So what are we doing? We're publicly going to challenge the ruling, which should certainly be challenged, but should we really be the ones doing the challenging? Nobody is a "good guy" here. They're just a bunch of asshats squabbling over money but I'll tell you one thing - if there was an ally that I wanted to keep onside for the future, if I had to choose, it wouldn't be the EC. To recap: - Apple should be paying more tax. - Ireland needs the money. But more importantly we have an economy and business relationships that we'd like to keep intact thank you very much. - The EC are a bunch of turncoats who I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them. All variables considered I'd keep Apple in Cork, but try to squeeze a good bit more money out of them in the near term.