However, it will not be Berlin or the bureaucrats of Brussels, but taxpayers across the rest of Europe, that will face the brunt of any backlash should the bill get past the appeals of Apple and Ireland.
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If we are looking for positives, we can at least take a scintilla of pride in the fact we were subsidising the development of cool gadgets rather than coffee chains like the Dutch (thanks to Starbucks’ tax base there) or fast-food joints like the Luxembourgers (McDonalds, in their case).
“But instead of bailing out the tax dodgers under the guise of tax reform, Congress should seize this moment to take three crucial steps to fix our broken corporate tax code”. The corporate tax is a double tax in that it taxes income that has already been taxed.
Back then, the average rate paid for all taxes – federal, state, local and foreign – was 32.8 percent.
Noonan called on TDs to support the motion backing the government’s position that Apple should not pay back €13 billion in tax to the exchequer. Blouin traced the structure of the deal to the 1990s when Ireland’s economy was struggling and it tried to attract new investment by lowering its tax rate.
The government claims Apple has paid the full amount due to the Irish state from 2004 to 2014 and denies it gave it “selective treatment”.
Warren proposed three tax reform measures Congress should move to enact.
– NO TAXES: Nearly a fifth of profitable US companies paid no corporate taxes in 2012, the latest year tracked in a March report by the General Accounting Office.
It comes after the European Commission concluded, after a two-year investigation, that Ireland granted illegal state aid to the USA tech giant. The Irish wisely decided that the way to improve their people’s lives was by adopting economic policies that would lead to high growth.
On top of that, the commission said, Ireland’s tax take could be reduced if the U.S. forces Apple to pay more back to the parent company. The strategy worked extremely well.
“Leveling the playing field”: According to Jones, the EC ruling is part of “a general move” by institutions within the European Union to take a close look at different tax treatments across countries. The IRS doesn’t actually collect taxes on foreign earnings, however, until the money is brought back into the United States.
But other Irish lawmakers have argued the iPhone and iPad maker should be made to pay the tax bill.
Also previous year, Britain enacted a new tax to target profits siphoned off by worldwide companies – nicknamed, without much subtlety, the “Google tax”. Many politicians accuse corporate leaders of being disloyal by moving – when what they are really doing is attempting to survive and protect themselves against destructive US tax and regulatory policies.
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Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has proposed a similar slate of proposals when it comes to approaching corporate tax avoidance. It involves taxation of multinational companies, the scope of the European Union with respects to laws of sovereign nations, and it is Apple that is in the crosshairs. The longer it takes for Washington to act, however, the more European authorities will be tempted to grab the money first.
