Apple Owes Ireland

[samduffy]

What does everyone make of Apple having to Pay Ireland back 19 billion Euros due to a special deal made by our government. As an Irish person I feel that this could lead to Apple closing up shop here in Ireland and moving somewhere else leading to job losses and people being made redundant. its good to see our government is appealing this and siding with Apple on this. Personally i think Apple should pay the 19 BN Euros they owe us but i just hope it wont have repercussions is all. It is interesting to see what will happen

 

[pkcable]

This is what he's referring to...

EU to Ireland and Apple: $14.5 billion, please | iMore

Didn't the UK just leave the EU, and isn't Germany on the way out too? Could this latest action from the EU cause Ireland to consider leaving the EU also and be the beginning of the end of the EU? Isn't THAT the bigger issue here? My feeling is that the EU's day's are numbered, especially if Germany votes to leave!

 

[samduffy]

Yeah the UK did leave.i never heard about Germany i wouldn't have thought so as its germany who make the dominate decisions within the EU. We couldnt survive outside the EU were not strong enough as an economy our own currency is too weak and no one would trade with us we would be a 3rd world country. Being in Europe has its benefits but Europe itself is a complete mess and has a lot of bulling that goes on towards smaller countries. Europe can feel they can bully Ireland as were so small. Sure our military is tiny lol

 

[Rob Phillips]

This is what he's referring to...

EU to Ireland and Apple: $14.5 billion, please | iMore

Didn't the UK just leave the EU, and isn't Germany on the way out too? Could this latest action from the EU cause Ireland to consider leaving the EU also and be the beginning of the end of the EU? Isn't THAT the bigger issue here? My feeling is that the EU's day's are numbered, especially if Germany votes to leave!

I was just talking about this same exact concern with a client this morning. If the UK fails to trigger Article 50 I feel like other nations will follow suit.

 

[samduffy]

Ireland wont leave and we cant we owe Europe Billions in Death they are not going to force us out of Europe

 

[samduffy]

people are saying the money apple new us could help us pay off half the death we owe or build more schools and hospitals. Have you ever been to Ireland its a brilliant country sadly a lot of people think we are part of the UK but were not

 

[John Yester]

From another source.

I hope that we get a fair hearing. If we don’t, then we would obviously appeal it. It’s important for everyone to understand that the allegation made in the E.U. is that Ireland gave us a special deal. Ireland denies that. The structure we have was applicable to everybody — it wasn’t something that was done unique to Apple. It was their law. And the basic controversy at the root of this is, people really aren’t arguing that Apple should pay more taxes. They’re arguing about who they should be paid to. And so there’s a tug of war going on between the countries of how you allocate profits.


The tax law right now says we can keep that in Ireland or we can bring it back. And when we bring it back, we will pay 35 percent federal tax and then a weighted average across the states that we’re in, which is about 5 percent, so think of it as 40 percent. We’ve said at 40 percent, we’re not going to bring it back until there’s a fair rate. There’s no debate about it. Is that legal to do or not legal to do? It is legal to do. It is the current tax law. It’s not a matter of being patriotic or not patriotic. It doesn’t go that the more you pay, the more patriotic you are.

And so what we’ve said — we think it’s fine for us to pay more, because right now we’re paying nothing on that and we leave it over there. But we — like many, many other companies do — wait for the money to come back.

In the meantime, it’s important to look at what we do pay. Our marginal rate, our effective rate in the U.S. is over 30 percent. We are the largest taxpayer in the United States. And so we’re not a tax dodger. We pay our share and then some. We don’t have these big loopholes that other people talk about. The only kind of major tax credit that we get is the R&D tax credit, which is available to all companies in the United States. That’s important to know. The second thing I would point out is we have money internationally because we have two-thirds of our business there. So we earn money internationally.

 

[samduffy]

yeah I dont blame Apple or the Irish government i blame the EU however i am pro European

 

[pkcable]

yeah I dont blame Apple or the Irish government i blame the EU however i am pro European

Yea I really question the EU pushing this issue, especially in light of what is happening with the UK withdrawal. Maybe they felt they needed an issue to take a hard-line stand on? Sort of a line in the sand so to speak?

 

[samduffy]

yeah. Whats worse is Apple are building a Huge data centre here for all EU customers for i message i tunes etc and its bringing 850 million into the Irish economy but there is objection to it. but i would be worried myself due to the farmland its taking up and the animals who live there if its friendly to the earth and doesnt harm anything living there I'm happy to see it go ahead otherwise no they should wait and do it else where

 

[Wotchered]

Sam,
I think that this issue explains perfectly why a lot of people in the UK voted to leave the European Union. Southern Ireland organised its tax regime for maximum benefit to its own citizens, and is a sovereign nation, therefore has the right to do so. Encroachment upon areas of national importance and increasing interference in legal systems is inevitably going to be the downfall of the E U. Ireland has the right to do what it likes with its revenues, and like ourselves joined what we thought to be a Common Market !!

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

Personally i think Apple should pay the 19 BN Euros they owe us but i just hope it wont have repercussions is all. It is interesting to see what will happen

Here's one thing that is for sure: Plenty of lawyers are going to make A LOT of money during this whole thing.

 

[samduffy]

Honestly I feel bad for Apple and our government. This could threaten Apples expansion here in Ireland. We need any multinational companies we can get here as a country were not like america or the uk in the sense that we cant survive without a lot of them we need them our economy is too small. Even if Apple are which i dont believe are but if they are only paying the 1 percent or 0.005 or whatever it is at least they are paying something and each worker there is paying income tax and PAYE and other taxes. We have google and Facebook here too. We are an attractive country for American Companies due to our low 12.5 corporation tax. I wonder will Tim mention at the iPhone 7 event

 

[samduffy]

If Apple was to leave Ireland go to the UK it would be a disaster to the Irish economy

 

[samduffy]

europe is envious of our low corporate tax rate

 

[Altergeist]

I am of the mind that every company should pay a reasonable tax rate to support the economy and people of the country they are operating in. This becomes especially pertinent when big players are able to pay arrange their affairs such that they can pay vastly reduced tax rates, giving them an unfair advantage over smaller businesses and startups.

 

[samduffy]

Personally I believe Apple and our Government here I dont believe there was any special deal given to Apple. But if it turns out this is true and they havent been paying the full 12.5 percent i still think its good they are here and what you have to remember is that they create jobs and employment here and the staff working there pay income tax etc. We need Apple here thats why are government didn't side with Europe and are with Apple on an appeal, if Apple pull out of Ireland it would destroy our economy. We went through a bad recession so any Multinational company in my view should be welcomed here. Our economy is tiny we couldn't survive without Apple. Our country is not like America its tiny only 4 million people with a small economy