This double Irish tax fiddle/EU fine stuff

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Maybe I'm misunderstanding this so please clarify.

Ireland created a tax fiddle (the double Irish) with the EU, to allow mainly US firms to setup cheaply in Ireland to falsely boost their economy.

The idea was that corporation tax was set rediculous low in Ireland to allow international firms to trade in the EU and pay little tax.

So firms trading mainly in the UK, Google, Starbucks, Facebook, etc are apparently Irish, so pay sod all UK tax.

And the Irish get the proceeds of the fine from the EU?

Priceless!
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[ScaredyCat]

What it means is that companies can't trust a contract with government. Ireland didn't want this at all because they rely on low taxation to encourage companies to setup and stay there.
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[RhynoCZ]

I just briefly heard the news on the radio, but from what I got, Irish gave a tax rebate to Apple to allure them to invest/stay in Ireland.

The thing here is, that the rules of our common market forbids the member states to have such tax rebates/exemptions. It's just not fair to the other competitors on the common market. French did exactly the same thing, that Irish did, not that long ago with the EDF which resulted in EDF paying back the tax rebate it got from France. I could google the exact number, but we are talking about more than 1 billion eur here in the EDF case.

Such tax exemption could lead to a restrictions of access to the Irish market (the common market in general) for other competitors that were not granted this kind of benefit. As a country you may set your taxes lower, but only if for everyone and not just for a selected group of competitors (even then it is limited by other rules). Which is something Irish and French did.

Stupid it might be, but those are the rules of the game.

Oh and by the way, there is no fine. The sentence here is/would be/will be the Apple paying the difference between a normal tax and the reduced tax they were paying to Ireland, where the company/branch is based (EU forbids double taxation, so for the purpose of paying taxes it does not matter they mostly operate in the UK, or any other common market member state)
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[Kawasaki Jimbo]

How dare a European country manage its own affairs.



Accepting EU grants to subsidise a low tax regime designed to encourage growth? Exactly how would accepting EU money bring long-term prosperity without ideas such as this? How would a relatively poor EU country (sorry, "state") compete (dirty word) with the richer states and develop beyond indebtedness? It seems like they just didn't know their place in tne EU.

[Gone but not forgotten]

Someone needs to explain this to me because I thought both Apple centers in Eire have nothing to do with UK tax collecting..........

Or do I need to get my coat?
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Mick

[ScaredyCat]

[Gone but not forgotten]

[ScaredyCat]

[Gone but not forgotten]

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[RhynoCZ]

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[Gone but not forgotten]

[RhynoCZ]

@ mpd72

Alright, I'm gonna make this quick, as I want to go to sleep.

Ireland, member of the Eurozone = must fulfill the Maastricht criteria. And yes, there are commodities we all decided on to tax differently than the rest of our own home markets. Now to taxes in the member states, the states may set their taxes, but must avoid any kind of discrimination (read any ''Member country v. Comission'' stuff, it's all about that). For instance, the Humblot case (France v. Comission).
TL; DR - French made a special tax on cars, based on their engine power output (or displacement, not sure, not important). The thing was, that all the domestic car manufacturers made only cars with less powerful engines, so the tax never touched them, but most of the cars imported to France were more powerful (bigger displacement, I really can't remember now) and were extra taxed. If you see nothing wrong here, then you missed the point of all this.
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[Kawasaki Jimbo]

I'm not defending Apple but this is about Ireland, a supposedly sovereign nation, and allegedly any multi-national could have had the same deal. Presumably the union primarily denied tax is the USA, not the EU, so who is disadvantaged?

The EU is telling Ireland to accept their charity and not try to compete with the net contributors. It also tells them that to leave is to be crushed. What exactly is the EU for if not to level economies and thus prevent strife? Free market my arse.

[RhynoCZ]

Yes Jimbo, because the Free market is all about the member states doing whatever they want, deciding on what rules they are going to obey and what they won't.

It is a free market for the competitors and consumers, not for the member states.
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'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Rogerborg]

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[stinkwheel]

What worries me more is the fact that it is the (unelected) European Commission making the decision.

Surely keeping clear blue sky between Judicial and Executive powers is what stops a government becoming a tyranny? The makers of the laws shouldn't be the ones to enforce them.
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[Rogerborg]

[Derivative]

Corporate income tax again? It's like that leak in the roof that's been there since great-granddad bought the farmhouse. No-one actually gives a shit but everyone loves to moan, politicians included.

If I'm not reading the same headlines with my pipe and slippers in 50 years time, odds are I'm under a truck.