Apple’s Cook Confident of Victory in Tax Fight as Irish Dither
I am Irish and work in tech BUT I do not know how to feel about this fiasco.<p>On one hand:<p>* Personal taxes and various hidden charges (and no we do not have free healthcare like the NHS, unless you are unemployed) are massive<p>* Small companies such as mine do not get any special treatment and have to pay corporate tax at 12.5%, its unfair Apple get preferential treatment<p>* 13 billion would go a long way to solving all sorts of issues this country faces (tho it seems other countries want some of this money...)<p>On the other hand:<p>* The EU seems to be overstepping its bounds and trying a powergrab, last two times I voted YES on EU referendums we had clear promises that EU will not involve themselves in a members tax policy, i feel I was lied to.<p>* Apple (and pretty much any large company you can think of) are here in Ireland and do hire boatloads of people, who in turn spend the money in the economy<p>* Without our low corporate rates Ireland would be yet another impoverished peripheral EU state (as it was for long time) like Greece, minus the sun and with loads of rain :(<p>So yeh I can see the moral and the pragmatist arguments being made on both sides of the debate, but can not decide yet where I fall.<p>tl.dr: Its complicated...