“Ireland’s cabinet agreed on Friday to join Apple in appealing against a multi-billion-euro back tax demand that the European Commission has slapped on the iPhone maker, despite misgivings among independents who back the fragile coalition,” Padraic Halpin reports for Reuters. “A government spokesman said that following the cabinet’s decision, it would ask parliament to endorse the legal challenge on Wednesday next week.”
“Finance Minister Michael Noonan has insisted Dublin would fight any adverse ruling ever since the European Union began investigating the U.S. tech giant’s Irish tax affairs in 2014, arguing that it had to protect a tax regime that has attracted large numbers of multinational employers,” Halpin reports. “But at an earlier cabinet meeting on Wednesday he failed to persuade a group of independent lawmakers, whose support is vital for the minority government, to agree to fight the ruling that Apple (AAPL.O) must pay up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in tax to Dublin.”
“Ireland’s main opposition party, Fianna Fail, also favours challenging Brussels. The government should therefore easily win parliamentary support to appeal against European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s ruling,” Halpin reports. “Apple, anxious to defend its own interests, has already said it will lodge an appeal. For Fine Gael, the main Irish coalition party, a broader principle is at stake. It wants to take on Brussels to safeguard Ireland’s decades-old low corporate tax policy that has drawn in multinationals such as Apple, creating one in 10 jobs in what was once an impoverished country.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Go Apple and Ireland! Let the good fight commence!
SEE ALSO:
Treasury accuses EU of trying to steal U.S. tax revenues with Apple decision – September 1, 2016
Irish residents opposed to EU’s tax demand of Apple – September 1, 2016
Apple Inc. pushes back against EU tax grab – September 1, 2016
Apple may repatriate billions of dollars next year after new U.S. President takes office – September 1, 2016
U.S. tax code allows for dramatic retaliation against EU overreach in Apple case – September 1, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook on EU tax demand: ‘No one did anything wrong here and Ireland is being picked on… It is total political crap’ – September 1, 2016
U.S. Treasury: The European Commission’s retroactive tax demands on Apple are unfair – August 30, 2016
EU demands Apple pay massive $14.5 billion in taxes plus interest – August 30, 2016
U.S. government warns EU: Do not hit Apple with a massive back tax bill – or else – August 25, 2016
Apple’s not paying and neither is Mexico.
US foreign aid to Mexico in fiscal 2014 was $419.94m…they WILL pay for The Sovereignty Wall, if that is what you are alluding to.
Extortion never works
Extortion is based on the premise that you’re taking something that is rightly owned by another if demands are not met…US foreign aid is not “rightly” owned by Mexico…it is a gift from the American taxpayer.
…further, on January 17 a lot of “gifts” from the American taxpayer are going to end. Christmas is over, muchacho.
(20th)
Then I assume that you support forcing the United States to pay compensation to the two million or so Mexican farmers who have been put out of work by the import of subsidized American agricultural goods? NAFTA has required sacrifices by some workers in each country, although it has arguably benefited the majority in both countries.
How about getting the US to pay for a Mexican wall along the border, since the net population transfer for the last few years has been from north to south, not the other way around? How about using the profits earned by American companies in Mexico to pay for the wall, rather than allowing them to be repatriated to the American owners? I think you will find that more money earned in Mexico goes north than the reverse. The financial leverage that you and Trump imagine is much less than you both think.
Where is your proof that Mexico receives any significant amount of money in gifts from the American taxpayers (hint: payments for services rendered are not gifts)?
Please explain the benefit of a costly wall when almost half of the people who are present illegally in the US came in through a port of entry with a valid visa that has now expired? What is your attitude towards the tens of thousands of Europeans and Canadians who overstay their visas each year (far more than the number of Mexicans who overstay)? Do you think that people with white skins deserve better treatment than those with colored skins? Is Ottawa going to be forced to pay for a wall along its US border?
Finally, what the deuce does any of this have to do with Ireland, unless you are pointing out that there are currently about 50,000 Irish citizens illegally present in the US?
Your last paragraph gave me a chuckle, TxUser! Old botty doesn’t know any better than to incessantly repeat the party line.
Mexico is not paying for a wall. The crash in oil prices has hurt Mexico a lot worse than the U.S. Besides, botty and his ilk fail to consider the massive consequences of a border wall on the agricultural, dairy, and construction industries. It is partisan talk along the lines of George W. Bush. It was wasted money then, and it would be wasted money again (if Trump was actually elected and Congress went along with it – an exacta with astronomical odds).
“NAFTA has required sacrifices by some workers in each country…”
As you may have heard, Trump will be “renegotiating” Horndog Billy’s NAFTA.
You can cut off the foreign aid to Mexico, botty, but Mexico still won’t build the wall for you. It would take decades of that foreign aid to pay for a Trump wall and the most that he could have is eight consecutive years. How dumb do you think that people are in this country or south of the border?
Besides, the joke would be on you were Mexico to agree. They would undoubtedly incorporate a secret tunnel every kilometer or so to make the border more porous than ever!
Hide and watch, Melvin.
breeze is right. botty is wrong. nothing new to see here, just the standard overly vocal botty spouting his partisan crap on an *Apple* forum like an idiot.
erin go bragh.
I’d rather have erin go braless.
Had to be said. 😉 Luck o’ the Irish to ya!
(Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.)
aye laddie, the entire O’Botvinnik clan thanks ye.
Not surprising though a bit tough because with a minority government you have to work on the principles. That’s the nice thing about a minority government, the voters can form them when neither of the two major candidates or parties are worth it, it helps keep them in line. A healthy feature of many nations of the free and civilized world.