Commission says Ireland granted undue tax benefits of up to €13B to Apple
What Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and most other big US company do is the so called "double Irish"[1]. Essentially is a clever way of using two quirks of some EU countries loopholes in tax laws, from treating IP licensing fees (of course the brand and intellectual IP is owned by a British virgin island tax haven, where else could this stuff be created/invented), and the net result is that Apple et al end up paying single digit cents on the dollar in EU profits.<p>And with another quirk - this time in US tax laws - the do not even have to pay taxed in the US on those earnings, as they have not repatriated the funds.<p>How to pay dividends/fund buybacks, without repatriating those funds? Easy: Just issue debt (which your own subsidiary in the British Virgin islands making a killing on IP licensing might want to buy) or have your BVI IP trust fund buy those shares.<p>Now why would other EU countries let Ireland and the Netherlands get away with these accepted loopholes is a mystery to me, especially since Ireland had to ask for a bailout lifeline, and was in no position to negotiate firmly.<p>Why the US would allow their truffle pigs to not pay taxes on oversea earnings is clearly the result of expert lobbying.<p>[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement</a>