<story><title>Apple must pay 13B euros in back taxes, EU&apos;s top court rules</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/10/apple-loses-eu-court-battle-over-13-billion-euro-tax-bill-in-ireland.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>vasco</author><text>I think you make it seem like EU doesn&amp;#x27;t care at all about what member states do in regards to taxation but there&amp;#x27;s many limitations to what can be done by any member state in order to harmonize and prevent corruption etc. This in practice makes the EU have a lot of say in regards to taxation. Moreover the EU has special rules to limit moving funds to jurisdictions that have taxes that are deemed too low (read tax havens) - this directly implies no member state has agency to lower their own taxes as much.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s some example limitations: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;eur-lex.europa.eu&amp;#x2F;EN&amp;#x2F;legal-content&amp;#x2F;summary&amp;#x2F;tackling-corporate-tax-avoidance.html?fromSummary=21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;eur-lex.europa.eu&amp;#x2F;EN&amp;#x2F;legal-content&amp;#x2F;summary&amp;#x2F;tackling-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I focused on direct taxation, but in indirect taxation I think there&amp;#x27;s even more examples.</text></item><item><author>anonymousDan</author><text>For non-EU readers, note that taxation is explicitly not a competency of the EU (i.e. Ireland can set its tax levels to whatever it wants). The only thing in question here is whether it was applying the same taxation rules to all companies, as granting special exceptions to certain companies could be viewed as state aid (which is not allowed). Ireland claimed it wasn&amp;#x27;t, the current (over-)ruling says otherwise. This case is also specific to tax rules from many years back. AFAIK the rules have subsequently been tightened and the exemption no longer exists.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nine_k</author><text>Specifically in Ireland, corporate taxes were being lowered from late 1980s until 2003, in a series of agreements with the EU regulators. It&amp;#x27;s not like Ireland lowered the taxes in a sneaky scheme, or grandfathered-in an abnormally low rate.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple must pay 13B euros in back taxes, EU&apos;s top court rules</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/10/apple-loses-eu-court-battle-over-13-billion-euro-tax-bill-in-ireland.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>vasco</author><text>I think you make it seem like EU doesn&amp;#x27;t care at all about what member states do in regards to taxation but there&amp;#x27;s many limitations to what can be done by any member state in order to harmonize and prevent corruption etc. This in practice makes the EU have a lot of say in regards to taxation. Moreover the EU has special rules to limit moving funds to jurisdictions that have taxes that are deemed too low (read tax havens) - this directly implies no member state has agency to lower their own taxes as much.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s some example limitations: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;eur-lex.europa.eu&amp;#x2F;EN&amp;#x2F;legal-content&amp;#x2F;summary&amp;#x2F;tackling-corporate-tax-avoidance.html?fromSummary=21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;eur-lex.europa.eu&amp;#x2F;EN&amp;#x2F;legal-content&amp;#x2F;summary&amp;#x2F;tackling-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I focused on direct taxation, but in indirect taxation I think there&amp;#x27;s even more examples.</text></item><item><author>anonymousDan</author><text>For non-EU readers, note that taxation is explicitly not a competency of the EU (i.e. Ireland can set its tax levels to whatever it wants). The only thing in question here is whether it was applying the same taxation rules to all companies, as granting special exceptions to certain companies could be viewed as state aid (which is not allowed). Ireland claimed it wasn&amp;#x27;t, the current (over-)ruling says otherwise. This case is also specific to tax rules from many years back. AFAIK the rules have subsequently been tightened and the exemption no longer exists.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hinkley</author><text>Maybe they should do it like Roth IRAs. You can move the money to a tax haven only after you’ve paid taxes on it.&lt;p&gt;So if you’re building hotels or factories in the haven that’s fine. If you’re hiding money we demand our pound of flesh.</text></comment>