What will we spend the Apple money on?

Dionysis wrote: »

I need someone to explain the following?
Ireland is in trouble with the EU for not taking tax due from Apple.
At the same time, other countries are claiming that some of this money is due to them.
Then, why;
a) is Ireland in trouble for uncollected taxes that are due to other countries?
b) why are the other countries not in trouble for not collecting their taxes from Apple.
c) if the other countries did not know about the monies, then why is it just not an issue between Apple and the other countries, and leave Ireland, out of it.

What should we do with the money?
Spend all of it on paying back national debt owed. Our debt is far too high since 2009.
If there was to be an argument to spend, I would spend it only on capital projects that don’t incur additional year on year increases to the national budget, as we won’t have the funds again the following year.
Rebuild hospitals, schools, or build roads, or to install high speed fiber optic cable across the whole country. This later item, is the biggest deficit in the country to date and the hidden payback to the national coffers would be immense. People could work from home more, or work from home in locations that are rural, (I.e. work for someone in America from rural Galway). Keeps people living in rural locations and reduces people on our roads and the need for motorway infrastructure. Connectivity, high speed, is the biggest payback in the modern society.

The other European countries are not owed that tax (some retail profits aside maybe).

Apple is a manufacturing company. Despite what the British press says it doesn’t transfer money by booking it in Ireland. Like all manufacturing companies it earns wholesale prices when it sells and should pay taxes on those profits where HQ is.

The situation is more complex with the US which claims the profits on the overseas earnings of its own companies. Apple might either pay the bill here and get a refund there or the US might claim the taxes here. The US disputes the European case.

VinLieger wrote: »

My wages are pretty strong, ive great benefits and ive a good relationship with my company that would be destroyed if there was a combative union involved.

If i ever do get let go for whatever reason it will be either my own fault or the company in trouble and ill do what any sane person would do and look for another job instead of trying to find someone to blame for my problems

You are probably in IT. That ship will sail in the next few years and you will be unemployed and without recourse to benefits that a union will give you - at the very least redundancy. I guarantee that the vast majority of people in IT will be thrown on some slag heap before they are 50 as companies flee Ireland.

The problem isn't just the Apple scenario. They're probably unlikely to move anyway.

However, if the state were to just accept this ruling and rollover on it, we would be admitting to having been running a dodgy tax system where Revenue cut unofficial deals with companies. That's effectively what the Commission is alleging and the state is absolutely denying it and saying that the Commission is retrospectively reinterpreting laws to overstep its role into areas of taxation.

Yeah it's a lot of money, but the big picture is that we could set a precedent where the entire FDI strategy we've run for decades is not only changed from this point forward, but that it would be retrospectively reviewed and companies based here would be handed huge tax bills.

If we lose this case, it could have very serious economic consequences, far beyond any €13 billion of theoretically unpaid tax.

Ireland has changed many of its taxation rules and is currently in a position that's acceptable to the Commission based on current policies.

The payment of the money into the escrow accounts isn't really an issue. The state will also get all of that money back as the amount is invested and will turn a profit that will cover the costs easily.

What the state was trying to avoid was creating a €13 billion liability on the books and a huge risk. For example if the funds it were invested in didn't go as planned, the state could be left owing large amounts of money to Apple if the case is won.

You've also got to remember that Apple could also turn around and say the state assured them that they were tax complaint and then years later presented them with a huge bill. That could end up in court in Ireland and could be found to be unenforceable. Apple could even potentially sue the state attempting to prove negligence or simklar.. I doubt they would have any motivation to do so, but other companies could be far more ruthless if they were faced with similar and didn't have huge cash reserves. I mean it's not inconceivable that the EC might go after a company that was highly profitable years ago and is no longer so. That would be a scenario where I suspect you'd see lawsuits against the Revenue and the state.

This isn't really a situation where Ireland can just accept the ruling. It's one of those awkward legal messes where you're cannot admit liability and have to defend something on the grounds of being technically correct. It's not about political morals of past Irish taxation policies. That's something for political debate about current policies.

Also politically, we would want to be careful not to shoot ourselves in both feet over what is theoretical tax revenue at present. It would be nice, but not if it unravels Ireland's FDI legacy.

So, unfortunately, we don't really have the luxury of second guessing the morality of previous Irish policies as it's the current generation who will be left with the bill if we do.

handlemaster wrote: »

land link to the uk.

hydro /wind power generation mentioned a few years back. said we could be energy self sufficent with three four years would be good. control energy control your cost of goods production

Or straight to market (Europe) (Brittany) as well as that tropical extension out in the SW. Tidal energy is more consistent than wind, build the floating bridges on top of that.