Gilliam_Bates

anantksundaram said:

Gilliam_Bates said:

anantksundaram said:

iCave said:

georgie01 said:

pjs_socal said:

I am surprised that it took EU countries this long to enact these kinds of taxes. It’s common knowledge that Apple (with help from Ireland) took advantage of loopholes in international tax laws to reduce their tax burden. Of course, Apple has done nothing illegal, but it’s completely within each country’s rights to change tax laws to close those loopholes.

On one hand you may be correct, but on the other hand (one you were not speaking about...) taxes just in general are outrageously high and collecting these is just another failed attempt at governing. These taxes are a burden put on citizens not out of fair altruism by recouping money lost through ‘loopholes’ in tax laws, but rather out of a general attitude of turning toward increased taxes in an attempt to make up for inefficiency and greed.

We’ve gotten so used to this that we’re barely phased by it (outside of temporary moaning and complaining) even though everyone knows this is just a money grab.

I firmly believe the government can be run generously with a 10% income tax collection (and no sales tax). We just need to change our attitudes about tax and the responsibilities of the government.

I'm not sure which country you are from, but looking at high quality health care and affordable education provided in most of the European Union, it bears evidence that high taxes, when used the right way, do pay social dividends.

Coming to this particular topic, it appears that even if the corporation tax is 5% and there is a legal loophole to pay 4% instead, companies still tend to try to save that 1%. Looking that way, this is a sane solution.

There are no 'too high' or 'too low' taxes.  A society needs some revenue to cover its social expenses and this society has to look after itself, just as corporations look at their own profit motive. Taxation is a good way to implement this.

Corporate taxes are ultimately paid by the citizens in the taxed country. Just as with tariffs on imports. Just because it’s an indirect tax doesn’t mean you’re not paying it. It is simply a different means of collecting taxes from citizens.

Only an uniformed person would think otherwise. 

No, that is wrong. See my other comment below on your previous assumptions that were mixing up national economy theory with international.

Oh boy. See this, for instance: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/gopinathtextfa17bpea.pdf

(Gita Gopinath is a well-known economist, and currently chief economist for the IMF.)

anantksundaram said:

Gilliam_Bates said:

anantksundaram said:

dougd said:

Awww Apple has to pay some tax boo hoo

“Some”? 3% of revenues for a company with a 20% pre-tax profit margin is a 15% tax rate. For a company with 3% margin, it’s a 100% tax rate. 

You like spending other people’s money, eh?

Sorry, but you are mixing up national economy with international. Those are two totally different things. Company revenue, -profits, and -taxes are all part of one country’s economy system, while sales are taking place inside another country’s economy system. They definitely do not connect in the same way as if they were taking place in the same country/state. Which is also why these French taxes won’t necessarily affect consumer prices in France any more than in all other countries.

To calculate the profit you need to deduct the costs connected to only the sales for that particular foreign country – which is really tough. But for digital services that would basically be the cost of sales plus some small extra data warehouse costs, which amounts to nearly nothing in the cases above.

Your post makes no sense at all, I am afraid. Just no sense, at multiple levels. 

roake said:

pjs_socal said:

I am surprised that it took EU countries this long to enact these kinds of taxes. It’s common knowledge that Apple (with help from Ireland) took advantage of loopholes in international tax laws to reduce their tax burden. Of course, Apple has done nothing illegal, but it’s completely within each country’s rights to change tax laws to close those loopholes.

So imagine if every UN country charged Apple an additional 3% on gross revenue.

eightzero said:

davgreg said:

I would love to see Apple make a desktop device running iOS that has a large tilting display And connectivity like the Surface Pro.

For a lot of people, that could be a better option at home than a laptop or an iMac. I would gladly buy one and doubt I would be the only one.

I would like to have an app for macOS that is an emulator of my iOS devices. Launch "iPhone" on my iMac, then interface with my iPhone from my mac.