Global Arrows Pointing At The Apple Atop Ireland's Head
By David Monagan
May 26, 2013
(excerpts..) The uproar over Apple AAPL +0.67%, Inc.’s avoidance of billions in U.S. taxes through an ingenious offshore shell game has created a public relations nightmare for the Republic of Ireland, home to more than a thousand multinational corporations and hungry for more.
They’re an economic lifeline here, and the Irish government has been circling its wagons to insist that there has been no skullduggery in le affaire Apple as the country is taking a barracking in the global press and being branded on the front page of today’s Sunday Times (U.K.) as the “third biggest U.S. tax haven.” Implication: Angola, or Bermuda or Cuba next bed.
Might they know of the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico?
The United States territory of Puerto Rico, with a not dissimilar situation to Ireland’s, offers a tax rate of 4 percent to relocating corporations, nearly ten times lower than what Apple faces in California.
That rate is but a touch higher than the pre-Obama number that provoked the American Revolution — the 3 percent duty on imported tea from the British Crown.
“Worldwide” in Apple’s case involves Apple’s clever routing of billions through loopholes that allow a resident corporate entity in Ireland to register its subsidiaries doing business elsewhere without having to pay any tax on them in Ireland. Such subsidiaries do not even have to file a tax return in Ireland, as they pass the cash earned from far away onto some place next reached by Ryanair – in Apple’s case, Bermuda.
“Worldwide” in Apple’s case involves Apple’s clever routing of billions through loopholes that allow a resident corporate entity in Ireland to register its subsidiaries doing business elsewhere without having to pay any tax on them in Ireland. Such subsidiaries do not even have to file a tax return in Ireland, as they pass the cash earned from far away onto some place next reached by Ryanair – in Apple’s case, Bermuda.
FULL ARTICLE: What Can Go Wrong Next? Global Arrows Pointing At The Apple Atop Ireland's Head
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