The people of Ireland have democracy, perhaps they have different views on taxation than you do.
It may come as a surprise to you but some people aren't so greedy as to believe that they are entitled to the fruits of other's labour.
It may come as a surprise to you but some people aren't so greedy as to believe that they are entitled to the fruits of other's labour.
Where is this agreement you speak of?
Is there any situation you can imagine where Apple, or any corporation, could have done anything wrong when it comes to how it pays taxes?
I would say that when the sovereign is in agreement the payment of taxes that it can't be construed as evasion, however, I'm not super well versed on how much of a sovereign Ireland really is given it's membership in the EU. Perhaps the EU is the real sovereign in this case and Apple has erred in consulting with the Irish government who lacks authority to set tax policy in its territory.
If you are, are you going to tell us with a straight face that you've read the US'?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Revenue_Code
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/201...
It's about 3,500 pages long, written in esoteric accountant speak. Considering that in the USA "32 million adults in the U.S. can’t read. That’s 14 percent of the population. 21 percent of adults in the U.S. read below a 5th grade level, and 19 percent of high school graduates can’t read," I think it's an unfair burden to place on a population.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/illiteracy-rate_n_...
If the population is unable to read the code that is used to relieve them of wealth, something is off--in both their own ignorance and in their inability to appoint people they trust to handle that for them.
It would seem to me that with compulsory education everyone was afforded an opportunity to learn to read and write, if they choose ignorance I would not say it's an unfair burden. I managed to learn to read and write before my compulsory education began. Using this rare and mysterious ability I incurred about a dollar fifty in late fees at the library and became very well educated. I do find most people to be quite ignorant, but I must respect their choice to remain ignorant while surrounded by knowledge.
It's certainly an unfair burden if they were never afforded an opportunity to learn, however, in the United States I think you'd have to agree that if you don't know how to read and write it's a matter of personal choice rather than lack of opportunity.
I don't personally know the tax code as well as I'd like as it's not my area of expertise but I do consult with those much more well versed in it.
>Using this rare and mysterious ability I incurred about a dollar fifty in late fees at the library and became very well educated.
>with compulsory education everyone was afforded an opportunity to learn to read and write,
I have enough respect for your intelligence that to expect if you're here, you're aware of the vast educational chasms between the privileged and unprivileged. Basically, I'm confident you're aware that your experience is not necessarily the norm for every American. With that in mind, I'm curious why you still maintain such high expectations for tax code knowledge, especially considering all the evidence to the contrary of American financial literacy.
But because it is a bridge, we Irish don't really have a strong claim on that money: the revenue was generated somewhere else, and it's going somewhere else, it's just resting in Ireland for a while.
There's a bunch of hypocritical talk from other EU countries criticising Irish tax rates, all the while having lots of carveouts and tax breaks of their own that reduce supposedly high rates to nearly nothing in various deals. For example, France has an effective rate of about 8% on profits for companies in the the CAC40. Luxembourg is much worse, it's practically a tax haven that avoids being listed as such somehow, probably down to location.
In principle I'm in favour of something like the common consolidated corporate tax base. The problem with taxing multinationals comes down to game theory: if there's a common market between countries, there's a race to the bottom in tax rates for hosting multinationals. So there needs to be a pact.
There is a distinct and strong sense of unaware irony in this comment.