
Apple declined an invitation by EU committee to answer tax avoidance questions - okket
https://twitter.com/sbowers00/status/1003032503320444932
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chuchana
The article it links to: [https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-
papers/apples-s...](https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-
papers/apples-secret-offshore-island-hop-revealed-by-paradise-papers-leak-
icij/)

~~~
okket
The tweet also links to [https://www.bna.com/apple-turns-
down-n57982093151/](https://www.bna.com/apple-turns-down-n57982093151/) which
has the story, but is IMHO incomplete without the background.

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sonnyblarney
What Tim Cook should do is ask why the EU government decided to apply their
'understanding' of a tax rule a full 25 years after the activity started.

It's perfectly reasonable for the EU to say to Ireland 'you can't do that,
it's stretching the rules' \- but it's entirely unreasonable for the EU to
change their minds willy nilly and submit to populist pressure and de-facto
re-interpret the rules of business as they go along - and then apply them 25
years retroactively.

Especially when the very head of the EU, Jean Claude Junker is _literally_ the
guy who invented the tax-avoidance schemes for an entire nation - Luxembourg -
while he was there.

The episode is rotten and stinks to high heaven.

The EU should focus more on harmonizing and clarifying their tax rules instead
of deciding after the fact who they don't like - and more importantly - should
be focused on developing competitive players in tech so they don't have to try
to get into penalization wars.

Asia is undergoing massive growth, as is S. America, the US is doing really
well, while the EU is kind of in a slump.

The loopholes should not have ever existed, but it's the EU's/ Ireland's job
to make sure they don't exist, not Apple's.

Also - this is just the tip of the iceberg on this issue.

Finally, the EU wants to call Cook to the table not because it will provide
any light on what's going on, rather, they want to try to make a public
spectacle of it, i.e. 'Look Europe, we are taking those bad US companies to
task' \- it's all cynical optics.

Better to get their own house in order, Apple et. al. will follow whatever
rules are on the table, just make them fair and clear.

~~~
blub
Apple and the Irish government colluded to work around the EU tax system, to
the detriment of Irish and EU citizens. No, the salaries of Apple employees
won't "trickle down" and compensate for the missing tax income.

Why did it take so many years? Because the former two were probably fighting
it tooth and nail.

Asia & the US are having massive growth at the expense of the well-being of
their own populations. You would do well to remember one can't eat money.

~~~
sonnyblarney
"Why did it take so many years?"

Because there wasn't enough money being missed for the EU to take care of it.

The EU was well aware and didn't decide to move until it was enough money to
care about.

It should have been clipped from day one if it was against the rules.

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lord_ring_11
Btw doesnt apple have fiduciary duty to minimize taxes to the best of their
ability for their shareholders?

~~~
tomtimtall
If their taxminimization strategy puts them into a region where they run the
risk of having to pay huge costs in fines for their tax schemes then no. Just
like they don’t have a fiduciary duty to maximize income every single day,
which would have them forced to sell off everything not bolted down (we’ll
actually even the stuff that’s bolted down) to get cash here and now.

They should work in the interests of shareholders, which tax avoidance in the
extreme could turn out not to be.

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atonse
That’s ok. Next step, they’ll be ordered.

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kyriakos
How exactly can they decline?

~~~
okket
It is voluntary (but not answering questions may make you look shady).

More information is in the first linked article:

[https://www.bna.com/apple-turns-
down-n57982093151/](https://www.bna.com/apple-turns-down-n57982093151/)

Apple claims answering public questions will interfere with their "pending
appeal before the European Court of Justice challenging a European Commission
illegal state aid decision".

They offered a private session, but that was not good enough, because the
questions were not about the appeal, but the tax avoidance scheme documented
in the Paradise Papers.

