anantksundaram

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?

avon b7 said:

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.

Where would the problem be? It's a decision each sovereign state must weigh up. And in this case it isn't 'Apple', it's companies that go above a specific limit.

Taxing revenues is unheard of. And stupid. Only pre-tax profits are typically taxed. 

If a company like Walmart or GM were taxed at 3% of revenues, they’d have no profits left. This ill-advised EU move opens up a completely new front in a likely serious trade war. 

I predict they’ll have to back off. 

Excellent. Let's see a tax on every Danone yogurt, Airbus plane, Schneider circuit breaker, bottle of champagne, Dior perfume, L'Oreal cosmetic, Air France ticket, and Michelin tire sold in the US.

They'll come around pretty quickly.

Great summary! Thanks. 

The Watch is truly a game-changer — as much as the iPad was, if not more. It has become an essential accoutrement to my daily life, in a completely non-intrusive way.

But on a slow-burn, so people are not paying that much attention. It’s a sleeper product for Apple in so many ways...

muthuk_vanalingam said:

Few questions to ponder for huawei haters in this forum:
1. If trump gets a better trade deal from China, would that automatically exonerate huawei of all these security threats posed by them???
2. When it actually happens, what would be your reaction???
3. If ip theft by Chinese companies is your real concern, then why are you not asking the question to trump administration - "why huawei alone? What about the likes of xiaomi, bbk sub brands Oppo/vivo/one plus??? Are they all saints?"
4. What is the real issue with China and huawei? Is it Trade imbalance? Or Security? They are both mutually exclusive. If security is an issue, what about ZTE?

Is the bigger picture really being looked at by trump supporters in this forum??? As a neutral person from a different country, it does not look like so to me. 

1. While it's now difficult to disentangle the Huawei sanctions from the rest of what's going on, the basic issue with the company is over national security concerns.

2. I would hope that Trump would stick to his guns unless Huawei opens its code for inspection, ensures that it has no backdoors, and can prove that it is not quasi-owned or controlled by the Chinese state.

3. The issue of IP theft in China will likely be addressed as part of any reasonable trade agreement with China for all Chinese companies, including all the ones you mention. If the trade agreement ends up being something solely related to trade in good and services (e.g., they buy more soybeans and let some insurance companies compete in China) and not matters of IP theft, many in the US, including me, would deem the agreement a complete failure.

4. At this point, it's conflated. But it was clearly security with Huawei. As to ZTE, you don't seem to have kept up with the news: they are now subject to oversight by the US government for the next 10 years and they had to pay a fine of $1 billion.