| Xbrah said: It is ridiculous that the EU commission can tell Ireland to do anything about their taxes. Ireland is a sovereign country and should have complete dominion over their taxes, compliance and tax collection. It is totally up to the country whether they charge 50% or .001% in corporation tax and then instead tax the workers personal income at a larger or smaller rate to compensate. A few years ago during the financial crisis, Ireland was blackmailed by the ECB to take a bailout instead of allowing European (mainly German) investors lose their worthless investments. Where was the EU commission then? The only outcome of this will be that it will hurt a small peripheral open economy. It will destroy jobs and future growth. (Ireland is currently the fastest growing country in the EU according to GDP). Where did they even come up with this 13 billion? It is a totally outrageous figure and almost double what the highest estimate was in the lead up to the investigation. It stinks of a cash grab and a step towards tax harmonisation... Which will only benefit central EU countries such as Germany, France and Denmark, who are most responsible for this investigation. It just goes to show the imbalance of power and the bullying of smaller nations. During a football match between Germany and Ireland... The German commentators kept calling the Irish team, the "potato men" when they were beating the home team. They didn't even accept the vote years ago on the Nice treaty. When it was defeated, they put it to Ireland again a few months later. How is that democratic? |
The thing is Ireland granted Apple a Taxbenefit they did not give to other companies. They enjoy the benefits of the EU Market. Apple would not be there in the first place without Ireland being in the EU.
There are certain rules that every country has to follow that is in the EU its written in books and every country agrees to that.
Their elected officials agree to that. Also the benefit would be good for Ireland. As Apple can not really abandon Ireland they need to be there for their EU Buisness.
The 13 Billion would go to pay off part of Irelands dept. Which in turn would improve credit ratings and Ireland would have to pay less interest which could be invested in other things like Infrastructures. Ireland really has no place to complain that they have to follow rules they agreed up on. Lets think about it without being in the EU there would have been no money from Apple before and definetly no money now from them.
Same for other companies. Ireland has the right to set their own taxes but they also have to follow EU Regulations in doing so and since Apple used a special Loophole so they would not even have to pay the 12.5% which by EU regulations was not allowed they pretty much can not do anything.
Nobody in Ireland should complain as Ireland could have his cake (get Apple to be there) And now EU makes sure that Ireland eats the cake aswell. And best thing is there will be more cake in the future. So EU benefited Ireland in countless ways.
Apple pays just a months profits to EU thats nothing for them as of right now the Billions are just on accounts numbers that nobody uses and cant be transported to USA as there would be a huge cut for the IRS which Apple does not want to give.
The case is also not decided should Ireland be in the right Apple will not have to pay anything if Ireland went against EU Legislation then Apple will have to give money to Ireland. And Ireland has to begrudingly accept piles of cash.
