Apple Ireland Tax Scheme

Well... Google and Apple pay their taxes in Ireland, rather then where the money is made.

i think you are confused. It's not about taxing an american company, it's more about taxing an irish company

It is less the tax laws and more the trade agreements between countries. Until a few years ago the biggest tech companies used a bit of creative accounting to make sure that all their EU profits would at least on paper be made in Ireland because it had the lowest taxes of all and Ireland had no reason to change that. The EU stepped in once it came out just how far the Irish tax office was willing to go to support that scheme, I think they outright allowed Apple to skip the pretense (and several

There are Irish customers buying Apple products. Some of that money goes into the salaries of Irish Apple employees, which pay their taxes in Ireland. Some of that money goes into other expenses in Ireland. What's left goes to the USA where Apple pays taxes on the part of them that turns to be a profit. The idea is that part of that money (the tax) should not go to the USA but stay in Ireland. In that way the money of Irish customers would stay in Ireland, which is probably good for Ireland

The situation is complicated. There actually is no "EU tax"--each member of the EU sets its own tax policy. This is similar to state tax regimes in the United States, and it creates a similar situation: some EU countries compete for business revenue by trying to make their tax systems kind to business.Ireland, a little nation on an island far away from the rest of the EU, has decided that they will attract businesses by offering very low tax rates. Apple obliged them and based their

I thought they mentioned Ireland because of the recent Apple EU tax ruling. Google is also using the Irish tax avoidance strategy.https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/top-eu-c...https

The tax deal Apple made with Ireland between 1991 and 2015 allowed them to avoid tax on almost all profits across the EU, booking the profits in Ireland rather than the country of sale and paying less than 1% corporation tax (0.005% in 2014). Given that most of their tech stack comes from publicly funded research, the system is clearly broken.

Their corporate headquarter is in Ireland. They pay payroll taxes, VAT etc. in each EU member state just like every business has to. They do not, however, have to pay taxes on their corporate earnings in EU countries other than Ireland. That is a central part of "Freedom of Commerce" in the EU. (One of the EU's 4 foundational freedoms.) What Apple has been rightfully accused of is not paying their taxes on corporate earnings in Ireland.

Apple, like other european giants, sends all its European business through Ireland, which is a convenient tax haven. Now, Ireland seems no longer happy being the tax haven, and Apple is forced to pay somewhat normal taxes.

Just from reading the article:"the Commission says both companies should have been taxed by Ireland on the basis of their worldwide income.""These profits allocated to the 'head offices' were not subject to tax in any country under specific provisions of the Irish tax law, which are no longer in force."It seems it is not an Irish problem, but more a European one, and it appears that there are some technicalities that allow the EU to request Apple to pay tax