“Apple is moving its international iTunes business assets from Luxembourg to Ireland at the start of next month,” Tom Mendelsohn reports for Ars Technica.
“From February 5, the non-US side of its business, including the iTunes Store, Apple Music, the App Store, and the iBooks Store, will operate from its European HQ in Cork, according to a note sent out to developers yesterday,” Mendelsohn reports. “In effect, Apple is moving its subsidiaries from one low-tax European haven to another, in what could be construed as a careful slight to top EU politicians.”
“Apple employs around 5,500 people in Cork and last year announced it would expand that number by around a thousand,” Mendelsohn reports. “The company is also in the process of building an €850 million (£725 million) data centre in Athenry, which would underpin both iTunes and iCloud.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Luxembourg’s corporate tax rate: 29.22%. Ireland’s corporate tax rate: 12.5%.