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Is it just me or have SF vanished?

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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,047 ✭✭✭joeguevara


    So why aren't we backing the EU?

    Fear, is why we are backing the EU.

    Or somebody is getting benefit from backing Apple.

    We do not want E.U. harmonisation of tax if it undermines our ability to attract companies. Employment from them is huge. Development of education is Immemse. If we were the same as every E.U. country then we would lose all that.

    If we don’t back Apple then it will apply to every International company we have. They could up and leave. We would lose employment and everything else. So, we as a country are getting benefit from backing Apple.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,929 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    joeguevara wrote:
    We do not want E.U. harmonisation of tax if it undermines our ability to attract companies. Employment from them is huge. Development of education is Immemse. If we were the same as every E.U. country then we would lose all that.


    Strangely enough, if they're not paying enough taxes, you are!


  • Registered Users Posts: 436 ✭✭Sultan_of_Ping


    joeguevara wrote: »
    We do not want E.U. harmonisation of tax if it undermines our ability to attract companies. Employment from them is huge. Development of education is Immemse. If we were the same as every E.U. country then we would lose all that.

    If we don’t back Apple then it will apply to every International company we have. They could up and leave. We would lose employment and everything else. So, we as a country are getting benefit from backing Apple.

    I honestly don't think that any MNCs would up and leave but they would simply stop investing, throwing us into a prolonged death spiral. Down the line, that leaves plants vulnerable to being shuttered - unmodernised plants become more and more inefficient and eventually get closed down and razed.

    Plus once we rule ourselves out as a viable option for FDI it'll take a generation to get it back, even if we change tack back to supporting our MNCs in a couple of years


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,431 ✭✭✭Mortelaro


    Apologies if this offends you, but I am with Vesthager on this. If she wins in her quest to have all corporations pay their fecking dues...then we all as Europeans benefit.

    .
    Is the sinn Féin strategy to make 100's of 1000's of direct and indirect jobs redundant so as unemployed people they will vote for them?
    Venezuela here we come then
    Order me a sugarcane juice at the bar there I'm driving
    Use the government chits


  • Registered Users Posts: 436 ✭✭Sultan_of_Ping


    Mortelaro wrote: »
    Is the sinn Féin strategy to make 100's of 1000's of direct and indirect jobs redundant so as unemployed people they will vote for them?
    Venezuela here we come then
    Order me a sugarcane juice at the bar there I'm driving
    Use the government chits

    It's SF's way of reducing your tax bill - if you're not earning you're not paying taxes. In Shinnernomic logic that's a win :D


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,052 ✭✭✭tikkahunter


    I honestly don't think that any MNCs would up and leave but they would simply stop investing, throwing us into a prolonged death spiral. Down the line, that leaves plants vulnerable to being shuttered - unmodernised plants become more and more inefficient and eventually get closed down and razed.

    Plus once we rule ourselves out as a viable option for FDI it'll take a generation to get it back, even if we change tack back to supporting our MNCs in a couple of years
    Hewlet Packard is a prime example of this .Once the shareholders are not getting bang for their buck your a goner .


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,047 ✭✭✭joeguevara


    Wanderer78 wrote: »
    Strangely enough, if they're not paying enough taxes, you are!

    What do you mean by this.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,052 ✭✭✭tikkahunter


    https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/dup-councillor-same-sex-marriage-and-abortion-to-blame-for-coronavirus/02/04/ Just to lighten the mood here is something we can all agree on is bull**** 😂


  • Registered Users Posts: 67,121 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    Not getting into a long winded argument on it.

    It's clear to me and anyone with a eye/brain in their head that these corporations are behaving like a law onto themselves.

    Getting them to pay more of a fair share and something approaching what they should do is not a huge ask.

    Like everything, there is a balance to be struck.


  • Registered Users Posts: 436 ✭✭Sultan_of_Ping


    Not getting into a long winded argument on it.

    It's clear to me and anyone with a eye/brain in their head that these corporations are behaving like a law onto themselves.

    Getting them to pay more of a fair share and something approaching what they should do is not a huge ask.

    Like everything, there is a balance to be struck.

    I laughed when I read this - there speaks someone who doesn't have to deal with the HPRA :D:D:D


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  • Registered Users Posts: 67,121 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    Mortelaro wrote: »
    Is the sinn Féin strategy to make 100's of 1000's of direct and indirect jobs redundant so as unemployed people they will vote for them?
    Venezuela here we come then
    Order me a sugarcane juice at the bar there I'm driving
    Use the government chits

    Would you ever...just for once, stop the sensationalist scaremongering morte.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,216 ✭✭✭jh79


    I laughed when I read this - there speaks someone who doesn't have to deal with the HPRA :D:D:D

    To be fair he is talking about taxation.


  • Registered Users Posts: 67,121 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    I laughed when I read this - there speaks someone who doesn't have to deal with the HPRA :D:D:D

    Eh?

    Do you think these corporations are playing fast and loose with the law Sultan?




    No, coulda shoulda, mighta...just your opinion...Yes or no?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,958 ✭✭✭✭Shefwedfan


    Well that was some loop, Francie back onto the corportations!!!


  • Registered Users Posts: 436 ✭✭Sultan_of_Ping


    Would you ever...just for once, stop the sensationalist scaremongering morte.

    Nothing sensationalist about it - take our place at the moment.

    Nothing is moving on site - unless something is at risk of exploding there's no contractors allowed on. Maintenance etc is still going on but upgrade projects, and a fairly major re-configuration job have all been postponed indefinitely. People like me are working remotely

    The 600+ jobs are still there. And because of a changed shift pattern and the generosity of the company any one working on shift is doing very well with over-time and bonuses. But there's about another 600 contractors who were due to be on site over the next 6 to 18 months that won't be - now maybe they've found work elsewhere, or they are doing something else but I doubt it.

    And that's a good proxy for what an SF-led government will visit on us - no investment, no upgrades and a gradual winding down of production.

    I don't know how many jobs we support locally, not just in our supply chain but it might be reasonable to assume it's as many again as are employed here - so any loss of activity reveberates and not just throug the supply and support chains, but also out into the community - we sponsor a number of local sports clubs and our CSR programme does a bit here and there - if the site goes or gets downgraded the ramifications will be felt very far and very wide.

    When Dell went, 2000 jobs went with them, but it was estimated there nearly 7000 additional local jobs went as well. In payroll alone, Dell's departure cost the local economy €117m in disposable income.


  • Registered Users Posts: 436 ✭✭Sultan_of_Ping


    Eh?

    Do you think these corporations are playing fast and loose with the law Sultan?




    No, coulda shoulda, mighta...just your opinion...Yes or no?

    No, not at all.

    I think there may be a problem with the law, and there may well be ethical considerations that some people feel that they are not honouring - but as someone who works in RA I definitely don't think my sector at least plays fast and loose with the law......or if this is us playing fast and loose, I'd hate to see strict compliance :D:D:D


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,047 ✭✭✭joeguevara


    Eh?

    Do you think these corporations are playing fast and loose with the law Sultan?




    No, coulda shoulda, mighta...just your opinion...Yes or no?

    Do you mean Irish tax Law? In my opinion no. The Commission relied heavily on two leading European Court judgments relevant to State aid and tax planning matters, C-182/03 and C-217/03 Belgium and Forum 187 v Commission and C-106/09 Commission v Gibraltar (particularly the former), to state that we were in breach of EU Law. These are not analogous with the Apple Case the Commission’s approach is a new approach and departs from prior EU case law.

    Apple have complied with Irish Law and aren’t playing fast and loose.

    Do you think they are and if so why?


  • Registered Users Posts: 67,121 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    No, not at all.

    I think there may be a problem with the law, and there may well be ethical considerations that some people feel that they are not honouring - but as someone who works in RA I definitely don't think my sector at least plays fast and loose with the law......or if this is us playing fast and loose, I'd hate to see strict compliance :D:D:D

    So the EU is wrong to go after Starbucks, Chrysler, Amazon, Apple and others?

    I wasn't asking about 'your sector' specifically as i haven't the foggiest what your sector is.


  • Registered Users Posts: 67,121 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    joeguevara wrote: »
    Do you mean Irish tax Law? In my opinion no. The Commission relied heavily on two leading European Court judgments relevant to State aid and tax planning matters, C-182/03 and C-217/03 Belgium and Forum 187 v Commission and C-106/09 Commission v Gibraltar (particularly the former), to state that we were in breach of EU Law. These are not analogous with the Apple Case the Commission’s approach is a new approach and departs from prior EU case law.

    Apple have complied with Irish Law and aren’t playing fast and loose.

    Do you think they are and if so why?

    Hmm...I just think anyone...recording every Apple product sold in Europe, Middle East, Africa and India as a 'sale made in Ireland' for tax reasons is 'playing fast and loose' tbh.

    Might be just me though (but I doubt it)


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,047 ✭✭✭joeguevara


    Hmm...I just think anyone...recording every Apple product sold in Europe, Middle East, Africa and India as a 'sale made in Ireland' for tax reasons is 'playing fast and loose' tbh.

    Might be just me though (but I doubt it)

    It doesn’t record it as a sale in Ireland though. The Irish entities own all the intellectual property rights. If a phone is sold in China, it he Chinese sale must pay a royalty to the Irish entity for the intellectual property. It is not illegal and vastly different than what you have outlined as happened.

    The vast majority of profits were attributed to a “head office” not located in any country and therefore not subject to taxes in Ireland or anywhere. Now this is the crux of the matter but based on most tax lawyers completely legal due to double taxation agreements. The EU appear to be interpreting the law in a new approach which breaches actual case law and would have ramifications on any tax incentive scheme.

    All of the above is legal and certainly not playing fast and loose.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 67,121 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    joeguevara wrote: »
    It doesn’t record it as a sale in Ireland though. The Irish entities own all the intellectual property rights. If a phone is sold in China, it he Chinese sale must pay a royalty to the Irish entity for the intellectual property. It is not illegal and vastly different than what you have outlined as happened.

    The vast majority of profits were attributed to a “head office” not located in any country and therefore not subject to taxes in Ireland or anywhere. Now this is the crux of the matter but based on most tax lawyers completely legal due to double taxation agreements. The EU appear to be interpreting the law in a new approach which breaches actual case law and would have ramifications on any tax incentive scheme.

    All of the above is legal and certainly not playing fast and loose.
    The commission ruled that the tax treatment here in effect enabled Apple to avoid paying tax on nearly all the profits it generated from product sales across the EU Single Market, because all sales were booked in Ireland rather in the territories where they were actually sold.

    https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2019/0915/1075817-apple-tax-appeal-explained/


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,179 ✭✭✭Mango Joe


    Ah....I found the Shinners!!!

    According to the below news article they're demanding that the Dail sits, thus bringing all our politicians together for an orgy of cross-infection.

    What a pack of ignorant Morons.

    https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/we-are-risking-public-health-by-being-here-simon-harris-uneasy-about-dail-sitting-amid-covid-19-991752.html


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,047 ✭✭✭joeguevara



    Do you think that is the issue of the 13 billion. The profits of the phone sold in China switched to the Irish subsidiary because of the royalty of the intellectual property. They weren’t booking the sale in Ireland but the profits came there. But that is not the issue at all.

    Ordinarily, those profits would be taxed in Ireland at the relatively low rate of 12.5 percent but — thanks to an agreement between Apple and Ireland — the vast majority of profits in Ireland were attributed to a “head office” not located in any country and therefore not subject to taxes in Ireland or anywhere.

    “Apple and Ireland will say that the head office legitimately earned these profits — it’s not just an accounting maneuver — that the head office is really doing things that justify attributing most of the profits to it.

    It is not that sales are booked in Ireland. It is that the royalties are paid to a head office not located in any country. It is not a breach of the Law and we have sovereignty over our Tax affairs.

    Can you show me where they are playing fast and loose with the Law?


  • Registered Users Posts: 67,121 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    joeguevara wrote: »
    Do you think that is the issue of the 13 billion. The profits of the phone sold in China switched to the Irish subsidiary because of the royalty of the intellectual property. They weren’t booking the sale in Ireland but the profits came there. But that is not the issue at all.

    Ordinarily, those profits would be taxed in Ireland at the relatively low rate of 12.5 percent but — thanks to an agreement between Apple and Ireland — the vast majority of profits in Ireland were attributed to a “head office” not located in any country and therefore not subject to taxes in Ireland or anywhere.

    “Apple and Ireland will say that the head office legitimately earned these profits — it’s not just an accounting maneuver — that the head office is really doing things that justify attributing most of the profits to it.

    It is not that sales are booked in Ireland. It is that the royalties are paid to a head office not located in any country. It is not a breach of the Law and we have sovereignty over our Tax affairs.

    Can you show me where they are playing fast and loose with the Law?

    And the EU said after examining it that those claims were bull**** basically.

    Ok, you won't agree on 'fast and loose' even though we shut down the facility that allowed it.

    How about morally? Are corporations behaving responsibly and morally, in the way an indigenous business will pay it's dues?

    Apple has over 200 billion in cash available to it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,047 ✭✭✭joeguevara


    And the EU said after examining it that those claims were bull**** basically.

    Ok, you won't agree on 'fast and loose' even though we shut down the facility that allowed it.

    How about morally? Are corporations behaving responsibly and morally, in the way an indigenous business will pay it's dues?

    Apple has over 200 billion in cash available to it.

    Francie, you know as well as I do that morality or ethics do not come into tax law. If it’s legal, it’s legal. End of.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,544 ✭✭✭blackwhite


    And the EU said after examining it that those claims were bull**** basically.

    Ok, you won't agree on 'fast and loose' even though we shut down the facility that allowed it.

    How about morally? Are corporations behaving responsibly and morally, in the way an indigenous business will pay it's dues?

    Apple has over 200 billion in cash available to it.

    The Wiki page on the case very helpfully links to the Senate report into Apple's structures - which give the facts of the matter. They even have some diagrams that show the structure.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU_illegal_State_aid_case_against_Apple_in_Ireland#/media/File:Apple's_Offshore_Organisational_Structure_(2013_Senate_Report).jpg
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Apple%27s_Offshore_Distribution_Structure_%282013_Senate_Report%29.png


    Apple sold all of their products through retail subsidiaries in the individual countries where customers were based.

    Those retail companies all purchased the products for sale from Apple Sales International, which was an Irish registered company, but which was not deemed to be Irish tax resident.

    Apple's transfer pricing was set so that the in-country retail subsidiaries made a few cents of profit on their sales, whilst the vast majority of profit flowed into the ASI legal entity.

    The EU's finding rested on the case that Apple used two different branches (one Irish registered and resident, one Irish registered but Bermudan resident) within the single legal entity of ASI to set up a "Double Irish" structure, instead setting up two separate legal entities (which most others with a "Double Irish" used to use).

    There was no finding against the principle of using transfer pricing to funnel the profits through Ireland - it was just that Apple were allowed to use a slightly different legal structure to anyone else.

    The EU haven't ruled that any of Apple or Ireland's assertions around control, etc. were "bullsh**" - the judgement is that Apple were allowed to set their legal structures in a different manner to anyone else, and that being allowed to do that constituted illegal state aid.

    Yet again, we've the usual suspects pontificating on a topic they know SFA about. Every time one of their false claims get exposed they just move onto the next fabrication.


  • Registered Users Posts: 67,121 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    joeguevara wrote: »
    Francie, you know as well as I do that morality or ethics do not come into tax law. If it’s legal, it’s legal. End of.

    The EU said it wasn't legal...did you miss that? That is why Apple had to pony up the cash. That is why we abolished the facility.

    Pending a win by Apple and Ireland that's the state of play.


  • Registered Users Posts: 67,121 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    blackwhite wrote: »
    The Wiki page on the case very helpfully links to the Senate report into Apple's structures - which give the facts of the matter. They even have some diagrams that show the structure.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU_illegal_State_aid_case_against_Apple_in_Ireland#/media/File:Apple's_Offshore_Organisational_Structure_(2013_Senate_Report).jpg
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Apple%27s_Offshore_Distribution_Structure_%282013_Senate_Report%29.png


    Apple sold all of their products through retail subsidiaries in the individual countries where customers were based.

    Those retail companies all purchased the products for sale from Apple Sales International, which was an Irish registered company, but which was not deemed to be Irish tax resident.

    Apple's transfer pricing was set so that the in-country retail subsidiaries made a few cents of profit on their sales, whilst the vast majority of profit flowed into the ASI legal entity.

    The EU's finding rested on the case that Apple used two different branches (one Irish registered and resident, one Irish registered but Bermudan resident) within the single legal entity of ASI to set up a "Double Irish" structure, instead setting up two separate legal entities (which most others with a "Double Irish" used to use).

    There was no finding against the principle of using transfer pricing to funnel the profits through Ireland - it was just that Apple were allowed to use a slightly different legal structure to anyone else.

    The EU haven't ruled that any of Apple or Ireland's assertions around control, etc. were "bullsh**" - the judgement is that Apple were allowed to set their legal structures in a different manner to anyone else, and that being allowed to do that constituted illegal state aid.

    Yet again, we've the usual suspects pontificating on a topic they know SFA about. Every time one of their false claims get exposed they just move onto the next fabrication.

    Didn't for a second claim to be an expert on it.

    What 'claims' have I made only quote other sources? RTE, The EU etc?


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,047 ✭✭✭joeguevara


    The EU said it wasn't legal...did you miss that? That is why Apple had to pony up the cash. That is why we abolished the facility.

    Pending a win by Apple and Ireland that's the state of play.

    Francie, you asked for an opinion on whether the law was played fast and loose. I gave my opinion and backed it up with the reasons why, outlining that the Commission had departed from settled case law. Am I entitled to have an opinion the same as you are entitled?

    You haven’t outlined why you have yours other than European Commission said so. Why do you think it was fast and loose with the law? As a Sinn Fein supporter are you advocating that Ireland should not control its own tax law but it should be controlled by the EU?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 27,267 ✭✭✭✭blanch152


    And the EU said after examining it that those claims were bull**** basically.

    Ok, you won't agree on 'fast and loose' even though we shut down the facility that allowed it.

    How about morally? Are corporations behaving responsibly and morally, in the way an indigenous business will pay it's dues?

    Apple has over 200 billion in cash available to it.

    Effectively Apple are in the exact same place that the good republican Slab was. If you remember Revenue made a judgement against him that he fought through the Courts for several decades, losing at every stage before ending up in jail via the Special Criminal Court.

    If I remember correctly, Francie, you proclaimed his innocence all along right up until the minute he was found guilty and even then, you complained about the non-jury court. Guess what? The ECJ where Apple will end up is a non-jury court. Do you not have the same sympathy for Apple that you had for the Slab?


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