rune66

Soli said:

lmac said:

Apple is not breaking the laws of Ireland, but doing what any business with an army of accountants does; find ways to minimize taxation. If Ireland wants to change its laws, fine, but it cannot collect taxes retroactively. Part of the reason Apple is in Ireland is the favorable tax rates, a well educated population of English speakers, and a relatively low wage structure for the E.U. This is just posturing. It will blow over. If it doesn't, Apple will pick up stakes and go someplace more favorable. India is looking good.

If Ireland changes their laws or if the EU changes laws that disallow Apple to continue using this legal loophole across the EU (which would also affect countries other companies) then they have a right to do so, but I don't get how they can ethically back-charge a company for maximizing their use of the current tax law.

Well this is not a matter of Apple using a legal loophole. It's a matter of Ireland breaking EU law by allowing Apple to pay less than 2% tax on profit obtained in the entire EU. If Apple is stupid enough not to have foreseen this coming they should be fined for stupidity. But of course this is not the case. Apple has known all the time that they could be at risk but took the chance hoping they were able to bully their way through. The second part of this case is that for Apple to have been able to channel all EU-profits to Ireland they have used transfer pricing which is illegal. Tom Cook is a hypocrite. If Apple doesn't want to pay they should leave the European market.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2013/05/21/the-real-story-about-apples-tax-avoidance-how-ordinary-it-is/#632ea1a94d94