10 ms·
He said he did that in 2014, not 2011. Apple might well have paid $400 million in 2014, and that might well be 12.5% of the profit that Ireland says corporation
by parenthephobia 10y ago
He said he did that in 2014, not 2011. Apple might well have paid $400 million in 2014, and that might well be 12.5% of the profit that Ireland says corporation tax is owed on.
But, there are billions of Euros of profit that, according to Ireland, no tax needs to be paid on. Being able to choose not to pay corporation tax on 99%+ of your profits isn't an option available to most companies operating in Ireland.
- barrkel 10y agoThing is, tax loopholes are usually due to a confluence of interacting incentives. For example, governments often want to encourage innovation. That can mean giving tax breaks to income from IP. It can also mean creating a loophole if you structure the company such that profits get directed towards a holder of the IP. IMO it's ok for governments to use tax policy to encourage some things and discourage others. Not all companies will be able to take advantage of such policies, by their very nature; some companies do less of the desireable things, others more. So I don't see this as a black and white issue. One thing for sure, it's definitely an encroachment on Ireland's sovereignty with respect to tax. I don't expect the judgement to stand as is on appeal. If it does, the EU will risk further fracture. If the biggest countries in the EU use EU policy to attack smaller countries' tax policies, the club will start looking less appealing by the day. (Disclaimers: I am Irish, living in London, not a fan of Brexit, etc.)