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> I doubt it would be enormously difficult for Apple to relocate from Dublin to London. Obviously it is not. Tax sheltering does not require much physical pres

by gutnor 10y ago

> I doubt it would be enormously difficult for Apple to relocate from Dublin to London. Obviously it is not. Tax sheltering does not require much physical presence at all. It probably requires no more than changing a few contract between subsidiaries to initiate the cash movement to their fiscal haven of choice. The real problem for Apple is for the money that is already there. More generally this generation of tax avoidance is probably coming to an end: both the EU and the US are looking at it those days, and Ireland is one regulation away to have to find another way to print money. Not quite sure what's the big deal. Tax avoidance scheme are rarely stable long term. Extracting tax money is a global competitive market between state and large companies/rich individual. You should sleep peacefully knowing that in all the possible resolution of this affair, Apple will always have to effectively pay less tax than possible to your little startup stuck in a single country tax system.

deleted 10y ago
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dandare 10y ago
You don't understand, they would gain nothing by moving to London. Either London stays in the EU market in which case it must not give Apple unfair advantage or London does not stay in the EU market in which case Apple must pay tax for EU sales in EU.
- gutnor 10y ago
  Yes and no, maybe. You are right that this current flavour of tax avoidance is not going to work anymore and moving to London now or in the future will not change the outcome for the money mentioned here, only future money. However about London, once outside the EU they will have the opportunity to position themselves as a tax haven with clever new tax avoidance scheme for large companies. Now you probably automatically dismissed the idea because that's a crazy idea. Setting up yourself as a tax haven does not scale to the size of the UK economy, and the UK would need to do it at a time of intense scrutiny by the global community and the EU will certainly see that as a aggressive negotiation tactic which is not going to help the Brexit negotiation. But well, there were better arguments for not leaving the EU in the first place, and yet the UK seems to merely go for the hardest Brexit possible. So who knows ? McDonald (fiscal) move to London is worrying. Nissan and others are a bit too happy after their secret chat with the PM.

by gutnor 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

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dandare 10y ago

You don't understand, they would gain nothing by moving to London. Either London stays in the EU market in which case it must not give Apple unfair advantage or London does not stay in the EU market in which case Apple must pay tax for EU sales in EU.

gutnor 10y ago
Yes and no, maybe. You are right that this current flavour of tax avoidance is not going to work anymore and moving to London now or in the future will not change the outcome for the money mentioned here, only future money. However about London, once outside the EU they will have the opportunity to position themselves as a tax haven with clever new tax avoidance scheme for large companies. Now you probably automatically dismissed the idea because that's a crazy idea. Setting up yourself as a tax haven does not scale to the size of the UK economy, and the UK would need to do it at a time of intense scrutiny by the global community and the EU will certainly see that as a aggressive negotiation tactic which is not going to help the Brexit negotiation. But well, there were better arguments for not leaving the EU in the first place, and yet the UK seems to merely go for the hardest Brexit possible. So who knows ? McDonald (fiscal) move to London is worrying. Nissan and others are a bit too happy after their secret chat with the PM.