Amazon won its fight against an European Union order to pay some 250 million euros ($303 million) in so-called back taxes to Luxembourg in another blow to European Commission competition chief Margrethe Vestager’s tax grab crusade.
The bloc failed to show that Luxembourg had given the U.S. online retailer special treatment in violation of state-aid rules, the EU’s General Court ruled on Wednesday.
The victory follows last year’s landmark defeat for Vestager against Apple, which had contested an order that it pay 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in Irish back taxes.
Both Amazon and Apple were targeted by Vestager in a campaign to stamp out tax deals used by EU states such as Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to attract large companies.
“The Commission did not prove to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of the tax burden of a European subsidiary of the Amazon group,” the Luxembourg-based EU judges said.
MacDailyNews Take: Smirk.
Margrethe Vestager is really good at one thing: Losing.
Newsflash: Corporations don’t pay taxes, you do. “Corporate taxes” are simply passed along to the consumer. It’s how the government sneakily double-taxes its citizens. You’re taxed on your income and then again on what’s left via higher prices across the board. — MacDailyNews Take, December 4, 2015
Marshal Plan after World War II was basically a US government handout to European governments paid by the US tax payers. Seems like these beggars still look to US to fill their coffers.
What’s the matter with you?
The Marshall Plan was a brilliant handout to US companies with the side benefit of global goodwill and overall great thing to do.
Spoken like a kid who failed history class. You apparently don’t recognize the value of trade diplomacy. Yet you cheer whenever your corporations announce increased sales. Logic disconnect there!
The Marshall Plan prevented Russia from literally absorbing Eastern Europe permanently. The USA and Western Europe both provided resources to the democratic-loving residents of Eastern Europe, allowing them to survive and eventually throw off the yoke of communism.
Yes, the USSR did dominate political power behind the Berlin Wall but western trade and media leaked through. Military bases still in place to this day, manned by NATO, prevented communist expansion. It took decades but toppling the USR was done peacefully at MINIMAL net expense to the US. Compare the expenses the US incurred attempting and FAILING to stop the spread of communism in Asia. The US turned its back on China, no Marshall plan to keep them from turning to Russia for humanitarian aid and trade. Come on, tell us how much cheaper Korea and Vietnam were compared to the Marshall plan.
Now self-proclaimed conservatives like you poke your fingers in the eyes of the best allies and trade partners the US ever had (Europe) while turning a blind eye to Putin’s aggressive attempts to regain satellite states that the USSR tried, and failed, to make permanent parts of one nation. Their “union” fell apart. It seems conservitards in America want the UNITED States to fall apart too. Rather than tearing down walls, they promote isolationism. And revisionist history. Hypocrite chicken hawks following the dumb rants of General Bone Spurs.