Apple should pay €13B Irish tax, argues EU lawyer | Hacker News Reader

Apple should pay €13B Irish tax, argues EU lawyer

bbc.com

32 pointsthunderbong9 comments

I doubt this will really go anywhere. At the end of the day, it's actually in the EU's interest to make it easy and desirable for US megacorps to set themselves up there. €13B is nothing in the grand scheme of trade. That's why the EU are saying "should", not "must". It suits them to palm the heat off on a small country there, so most people can be sort of indignant about it but still feel like it's a foreign country's problem.

> At the end of the day, it's actually in the EU's interest to make it easy and desirable for US megacorps to set themselves

Why? They don't pay taxes, so what's in it for the country to keep them around?

In fact, when you think about it... they force out local companies in the same segment that actually do pay their taxes.

The purpose of government isnt to collect taxes, it is to benefit the citizens. Apple operations in Ireland might not pay as much taxes, but still benefit the people employed. Furthermore, employees do pay taxes.

Even further, it is not a given that Apple forced out valuable local companies that have anywhere near the same value. It is not like there was an apple scale technology company in Ireland that was displaced or run out of business.

The interesting bit to me is that Apple has had a presence in Cork, Ireland since 1980.[1]

Even though they do have thousands of employees and even build Macs there, it does seem to be a tax haven.

[1] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/11/apples-cork-campus-ce...

(Note pictures of the infamous Mac Portable, which was apparently manufactured there.)

Dell also manufactured most of their european machines in limerick until they moved the plant to poland.

Ireland does have a history of pulling in investment using tax breaks. Most notably the shannon freezone, where GE and subcontractors produce a large quantity of hardware.

> The purpose of government isnt to collect taxes, it is to benefit the citizens

Yet some citizens pay taxes and other benefit.

"{whoever} should really be paying lower taxes." -no tax authority, ever

This is exactly what Ireland did, creating a tax haven inside the EU.

I guess the EU has difficulty understanding the difference between giving and taking.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com