Hacker News Reader

Comment by tekla | Hacker News Reader

[flagged]

> The EU continually being jealous that the US continuously runs circles around them and lapping over and over and over and over . . .

You're making up imaginary scenarios which have nothing to do with this antitrust litigation...

I don't think nations follow a sports team fan culture when it comes to the question of whether or not a certain company paid enough taxes.

To be fair 13B sounds like a tax avoidance scheme that didn't work out

> Then, as we said, in 2018, the commission had a change of heart, felt rules had been broken, and wanted that €13 billion in tax from Apple.

> Fast-forward to 2020, and the General Court of the European Union decided Apple didn't actually need to pay the tax due to the arrangement the iPhone maker had in Ireland seemingly being above board.

It was ok, then not ok, then ok again. The powers that be are going to keep trying until they want the ruling they want.

I certainly don't like to see companies get away with cheating their taxes, but the back-and-forth nature of this reflects poorly on the EU and not on apple. Having it go through the courts so many times with decision reversals feels more like a money grab than enforcement. Surely at some point, when the court says you are off the hook you can actually expect to never get dragged back through it over the exact same matter.

And of course Apple is totally uninvolved in all of that...

Apple is literally a defendant. What is the implication you're making?

That Apple has vested intetest in getting the decisison Apple wants. Same rights for everyone, Apple or the EU.

Apple should be happy that the legal Irish fiction continues. Rather than paying the standard Irish taxes, the whole scheme should be disbanded and they should pay their taxes like any other normal company.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com