Apple's penalty, which is the largest the EU has ever lobbied against a single corporation, signals that the Union is getting increasingly serious about holding foreign companies accountable for their tax bills. But Apple is far from alone.

By selling intellectual property rights to sock-puppet subsidiaries, tech giants shift profits to low-tax nations like Ireland. But that’s just a start.

Sublicense the IP to a second Irish unit that books global sales, have entity B pay onerous royalties back to A (wiping out its earnings), then show that A is headquartered in the Caribbean, making its royalty income untaxable in Ireland. Slick! Only problem: Until the IRS gets its cut, the companies can’t bring the cash back home to use it. Hmm … not so genius after all.

http://www.wired.com/2016/08/apple-rest-silicon-valley-avoids-tax-man/

Good. It's annoying how many corporations can avoid billions of taxes without punishment, while a second class citizen who avoids(at the most) several thousand dollars of taxes gets hunted down until they are thrown into jail.

Ireland's tax rate is already low, and yet they opted for all kind of BS practices to pay practically nothing. Tim Cook can be all emotional about this hurting Apple and Ireland, but he can afford the taxes in Ireland no problem and he knows that. He doesn't really care about Ireland and it's people, he just wants to fill up Apple's coffers and give investors a lion share.

Pay your f* taxes like everyone else.

This.

And as I posted as a response in another thread:

This is 10 years of unpaid taxes where Apple has exploited the system and only paid 50 euros for every 1,000,000 euros profit.

How is that fair competition towards companies that've paid the normal tax rate? In Ireland the tax rate is 12.5%. Far from what Apple has paid.

As the most valuable company in the world I think it's time for Apple to show a little responsibility.
Besides, I think Apple will survive

I'm actually so ashamed of Ireland right now, it's pathetic our gov will do anything to try to make it appear that we aren't a terribly run state, literally offering companies a way to launder money in our country just so that it appears we have business's interested in moving here for legit reasons and to put people in jobs... but in reality now even those jobs are not payed wages from the companies but we have government job placement schemes which rather than companies having to hire employees and pay them a wage our gov pays the wages for them...

Not only have the Gov here been allowing the country be used as a back door into the EU market without paying the door fees... but now also they are starting to Use the Tax payers money here to actually fight the ruling that we should have been charging Apple a normal amount of tax... or any fucking Tax at all. Our Gov is literally spending money to turn down money... just to try to keep a company here... who brings nothing to the country but instead uses it to get it's stock into and out of the EU market.

It's not just Apples fault though, our gov here are attrocious at doing everything in their powers to fluff numbers, currently our unemployment figures are at their lowest in years.... that said all that happens now if you are unemployed here is you get shoehorned into a course to teach you some skills to help you get a job, when I came out of work for a year in IT I was being pushed into a 6 month course on ECDL, just so that I would not be "unemployed" technically, these courses are of course paid for by the Gov and you get the same unemployment payment for their duration, but as long as you aren't technically unemployed the Gov are fulfilling their duties to keeping people in jobs.... it's pathetic here it really is.

For anyone who doesn't know btw, ECDL is the European Computer Driving Licence, it is basically a course to show you how to turn on a PC, open internet explorer and send an email. Course of that going on here for 6 months, that is from people who know I'm a certified IT support staff member, MS certified and CompTIA, literally being shown how to plug in a PC just so I'm not "unemployed"

Still doesn't explain why Apple shouldn't just pay the regular taxses though?

Ireland literally bends over and offers not only a chance to fuck our country but also a way to get into the EU market via the same hole. Would you turn it down?

Sure I agree that it is shit... but I think Apple would be daft not to take up the offer, Ireland make it so profitable for them here, I'm just shocked our Gov hasn't started offering Child Labour to companies who are willing to come here.

Disgraced at my Country, literally.

Should tax them on where they sell (make their money) to avoid this tax loophole.

If you make a billion dollars selling something in the US, you pay taxes on that billion based off what the US sets it at.
If you make a billion dollars selling something in Ireland, you pay taxes on that billion based off what Ireland sets it at.

This way, small countries couldn't be used as havens for tax avoidance. If Ireland sets it low, that's their business, but it wouldn't affect other countries.

Just to clarify here, Ireland was making Apple pay just €50 per €1m of profit. Think about that... and also think about the fact that it wasn't profit made in Ireland realistically, it was of all European sales of Apple products, all being filtered back because of the single EU market and run though their Cork office here just so they could say they were legally paying the tax which was being asked for their EU sales.... of €50 per 1million euros profit...