Apple gets green light to add 1,000 jobs at Irish headquarters
More than nine months after Apple first announced plans to expand its European headquarters in Cork, Ireland, and amid an EU probe into questionable tax practices, the company was recently granted approval to add 1,000 people to its workforce over the next 18 months.
To accommodate the influx of new hires, which will bring the total employee head count to more than 6,000, Apple has plans to build a four-story office block projected for completion next year, The Irish Times reports.
In addition to the office building, Apple will add 752 new parking spaces to existing facilities. The construction effort is expected to employ some 200 people, Apple said.
Local residents of Hollyhill objected to the project, saying they would be "practically living in an industrial estate" if Apple was granted permission to expand. Ireland planning board An Bord Plean?la ultimately determined the new offices and construction were within the constraints of the Cork City Development Plan and would have no noticeable impact on the surrounding community.
Rumors of a major Cork expansion arrived in May 2015. At the time, reports indicated that Apple was looking to improve facilities at its headquarters to meet growing international demand for its products. Apple CEO Tim Cook later confirmed the company would hire 1,000 people to fill positions in manufacturing, customer care, finance and global supply chain management.
Apple will be building as European Union antitrust watchdog, the European Commission, probes the firm's tax strategy, which employs the so-called "Double Irish" provision to sidestep billions of dollars in taxes. Because the Cork facility plays a central role in Apple's version of the popular accounting scheme, the commission is investigating whether Ireland gave the company preferential treatment in a bid to spur job creation and economic growth. A judgment is due in September.
To accommodate the influx of new hires, which will bring the total employee head count to more than 6,000, Apple has plans to build a four-story office block projected for completion next year, The Irish Times reports.
In addition to the office building, Apple will add 752 new parking spaces to existing facilities. The construction effort is expected to employ some 200 people, Apple said.
Local residents of Hollyhill objected to the project, saying they would be "practically living in an industrial estate" if Apple was granted permission to expand. Ireland planning board An Bord Plean?la ultimately determined the new offices and construction were within the constraints of the Cork City Development Plan and would have no noticeable impact on the surrounding community.
Rumors of a major Cork expansion arrived in May 2015. At the time, reports indicated that Apple was looking to improve facilities at its headquarters to meet growing international demand for its products. Apple CEO Tim Cook later confirmed the company would hire 1,000 people to fill positions in manufacturing, customer care, finance and global supply chain management.
Apple will be building as European Union antitrust watchdog, the European Commission, probes the firm's tax strategy, which employs the so-called "Double Irish" provision to sidestep billions of dollars in taxes. Because the Cork facility plays a central role in Apple's version of the popular accounting scheme, the commission is investigating whether Ireland gave the company preferential treatment in a bid to spur job creation and economic growth. A judgment is due in September.
Comments
You can't trust those people.
For sure they are all most welcome and Ireland would indeed be more stuffed than it is without the employment they provide, but this is not a one-way street. There is also benefit for the companies, otherwise they wouldn't be here.
What is it with this DEDesque article that initially gives the impression Apple needed permission from someone to expand it's workforce? It's always got to be made out that the entire world is against Apple but that they miraculously prevail against all the evil forces opposing them. Apple applied for planning permission to build more buildings and it was given approval. That isn't close to being the same thing as implying Apple needed permission to employ more people.
There you go, take your pick and write to Tim with your suggestion. You might want to skip the UK. If one of your criteria is fluency in English, your choices might be a bit limited. How's Tim's Slovakian?
Research a little more, their contention is VERY thin and largely Apple did, in-fact, follow the law. It's not like EU will see any of that money, It's all Taxes that goto Ireland ANYWAY. They just want to push Apple out of Ireland and get Apples business in other countries in the EU.
The EU has been doing regular audits of Apple since the 1990's and approved their tax methods every single time. Thats whats galling. IMO, you don't like your laws, change them, fine.. Whatever they get changed to companies like Apple will follow them. But this is more of a linching to 'drive' companies like Apple OUT of Ireland because Germany and a few other countries what them to move their instead.
How do you do that, you make them villains, and drum up tax evasion ..
The point is and remains even if the EU is correct about the taxes: If Apple went into Ireland because they expected certain benefits and they're not getting them, they ought to consider whether expanding their presence in Ireland (or remaining at all) still makes sense.
I can make analogies too.
It's like you accepted a job with a company for a nice salary and then several years later a union says you have to pay a large chunk of your salary for the past years to the union because the company violated a union provision in offering you too much. Maybe the union is correct and maybe they're not, but you'd have to consider whether or not to remain given the new circumstances.
Why is it that so many people can not seem to grasp what the issue actually is and seem completely obsessed that this is about taxation, when it isn't?
The EU has to show that Ireland gave this deal to Apple and no one else.
The EU is not retroactively changing a tax rule. It has always been illegal to offer preferential tax treatment to one company over another. If this is the case then the EU can ask that Ireland demand the money from Apple.
However, the EU has to prove that the Ireland has not given the same deal to other multinationals. Ireland says this is the same deal everyone gets.