
Apple Wins Fight over $14.9B Tax Bill in Blow to EU - sz4kerto
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-15/apple-wins-eu-court-fight-over-14-9-billion-tax-bill
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oli5679
Interesting summary of the case in the article below.

The two key points were:

\- Arms Length principal

A big part of the Commission's case against Apple was that the agreements
violated "the Arm’s Length Principle", which the OECD frames as we should
reject transfer-prices that would not be agreed by independent companies
negotiating at arm’s length. Apple and Ireland argued that this was not part
of Irish Tax law, or EU legislation, rather a non-binding principal of tax
reform.

\- Where should IP profits fall

Apple argued that a large proportion of the value it created was derived from
IP developed in the US.

To me it does seem that European Commission was stretching State Aid beyond
what it was designed for here. There is an definitely a challenge in
harmonising tax of multinationals, and preventing 'races to the bottom' but
this is different to State Aid legislation, designed to prevent the propping
up of inefficient domestic champions with favourable treatment.

[http://competitionlawblog.kluwercompetitionlaw.com/2017/10/2...](http://competitionlawblog.kluwercompetitionlaw.com/2017/10/26/apple-
state-aid-case-one-year-later-open-questions-ip-transfer-pricing-state-
aid/?doing_wp_cron=1594811772.2785959243774414062500)

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croes
Profits has be taxed where it is made not where the product was made.

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nojito
Are you saying that Apple doesn't pay VAT?

~~~
croes
That's not what I meant. But technically yes, Apple doesn't pay VAT, the
customer does.

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isaachawley
I live in Ireland. This is a sad day. For years now I've been wondering what
the Irish govt would do with BILLIONS of dollars.

We could have had an Irish space program! A monorail! We could have bought
Greenland!

~~~
skywal_l
It's even sadder for other european countries losing taxe revenues which could
be used to fund educational, health and anti-poverty programs.

~~~
mattmcknight
Margrethe Vestager just wants to steal from the US. She's basically a thief of
US tax dollars.

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specialist
Been an Apple fanatic since ~1982.

I really wish Apple would just pay their taxes. They can afford it. In fact,
they can't give away their money fast enough (stock buybacks).

Whatever's fair. Excuses like "maximal shareholder value" and "fiduciary
responsibility" are just rationalizations.

Further, it could be a great competitive strategy. Akin to their virtue
signaling on privacy.

Amazon's greatest competitive advantage is their lower cost of capital. If
Apple paid their fair share, it gives them the moral authority to insist
Amazon does too. I'm sure they'd have allies in that fight.

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zwirbl
This really is a sad day for European tax payers, for small businesses in
Ireland even more so. How do politicians justify such agreements to their
voters?

~~~
nojito
The agreement was made in the 80s and it single handedly brought Apple to
multiple locations in Ireland instead of other European countries. I believe
Apple is one of the largest employers in Cork.

~~~
zwirbl
It might be the largest employer in all of Ireland, while still only paying a
small fraction of the taxes their workers pay

~~~
disgruntledphd2
That's the deal Ireland made as a country. Favourable IP laws and low taxes
for jobs.

I personally find it ethically wrong, but I have benefited from it my entire
life.

It's also worth noting that this deal was originally done in 1991, when Apple
were not as big as they are now.

The deal was renewed in 2007, pre iPhone. The renewal was the real mistake, to
be honest.

