Look, idiot. Now you are distorting what I said. I did not say they were “MANUFACTURED” in Ireland. I have not distorted anything that you have said; I quoted you and pointed out that you were being misleading for the umpteenth time during our discussion. You said, “All Apple products in Europe come from Ireland.” Any reasonable person would assume that you were implying that all Apple products were made in Ireland not that they were Chinese products that touched down in Ireland on their way to other parts of Europe so that they could fit into Apple's tax evasion schemes. It appears that you have taken a course in legalese directly from Bill and Hillary Clinton. If you lie about even the stuff that is easily verified it casts doubt on the rest of your lengthy obfuscations.
I have not drawn any conclusions myself about Apple's despicable tax evading behavior which clearly has reached a shocking new high even for soulless multinational corporations. Which of course is the primary reason why they have just been assessed a fine that is multiple times larger than any other fine in history. Ha, ha, ha!!! I have merely repeated what experts have written on the subject. Nearly all of what you have claimed are my conclusions have been in quotes with a link provided. But what has been written is both shocking and shameful.
You keep going back for OLD articles, 2014, now 2013. . . digging to find some dirt which is based on someone’s suspicions and theories, again not based on any evidence.
I have provided multiple links, the older ones were intended to show that this is a pattern of behavior that Apple has been engaged in for years. You have rejected every link with a variety of excuses, but here is one from yesterday from the New York Times a news outlet one would normally expect to find on Apple's side on just about everything:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/technology/apple-tax-eu-ireland.html
Here are a few noteworthy quotes:
“Europe’s competition enforcer said that Apple’s illegal deals with the Irish government allowed the technology giant to pay virtually nothing on its European business in some years. The arrangements enabled Apple to funnel profit from two Irish subsidiaries to a “head office” with “no employees, no premises, no real activities,” the commission said.”
“Apple paid only 50 euros in taxes for every million euros in profit during 2014. As part of its ruling, Europe demanded that Ireland recoup 10 years’ worth of back taxes, some 13 billion euros, or about $14.5 billion, plus interest.”
“The amount is a drop in the bucket for Apple, which has a total cash pile of more than $230 billion.”
“The United States government is an unlikely advocate. Politicians have berated Apple for paying too little by setting up complex and opaque tax structures. Officials have hit back against corporate mergers that allowed companies to move their headquarters to places like Ireland to take advantage of lower tax rates.”
“A United States Senate committee said in 2013 that Apple had negotiated a special corporate tax rate of 2 percent or less in Ireland.”
“The public scrutiny and the emergence of previously confidential information about Apple’s tax arrangements, in part, helped spark Europe’s own investigation into the issue.”
“Apple and other companies have also faced criticism for keeping large reserves of cash overseas. The money is not taxed at home until it is brought back to the parent company in the United States.”
Those are all quotes from the article. If you feel that you must go on another name calling tirade to address these quotes, you might think about addressing them to the New York Times and leave me out of it.
Apple over many years has established a pattern of lying and tax evasion that is shocking even compared to their competitors in the technology sector. Apple is run by a gang of pro-Hillary ultra-liberals that endeavors to trade the future of our country to add a few dollars more to their already bulging coffers. Your tirades and name calling has made it clear that you are a fan boy who has let your obsession with Apple products cloud your judgment.
Your purpose in every post in this thread has been to excuse the illegal behavior of a soulless multinational corporation which has been hell bent on defeating Donald Trump and electing Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. I find your shameless obfuscations and your repeated vicious insults to be more amusing than effective. And fellow Freeper, I do love you anyway. So lighten up, and thanks for the fun discussion!
I have not distorted anything that you have said; I quoted you and pointed out that you were being misleading for the umpteenth time during our discussion. You said, “All Apple products in Europe come from Ireland.” Any reasonable person would assume that you were implying that all Apple products were made in Ireland not that they were Chinese products that touched down in Ireland on their way to other parts of Europe so that they could fit into Apple's tax evasion schemes. It appears that you have taken a course in legalese directly from Bill and Hillary Clinton. If you lie about even the stuff that is easily verified it casts doubt on the rest of your lengthy obfuscations.I have not distorted anything that you have said; I quoted you and pointed out that you were being misleading for the umpteenth time during our discussion. You said, “All Apple products in Europe come from Ireland.” Any reasonable person would assume that you were implying that all Apple products were made in Ireland not that they were Chinese products that touched down in Ireland on their way to other parts of Europe so that they could fit into Apple's tax evasion schemes. It appears that you have taken a course in legalese directly from Bill and Hillary Clinton. If you lie about even the stuff that is easily verified it casts doubt on the rest of your lengthy obfuscations. There you go again. . . Fireman. I DID NOT SAY JUST: "All Apple products in Europe come from Ireland." You cited that out of context. Here is the rest of the context:
"Ireland is Apple's European headquarters, manufacturing, and distribution center. All Apple products in Europe come from Ireland. Sales generated in Europe are taxed based on its laws."
By extracting a single sentence from a paragraph of connected sentences you have ONCE AGAIN constructed your moldy Strawman argument claiming I said something completely DIFFERENT than what I actually said. . . and have constructed an entire house of cards, no a castle with flying pennants, with absolutely NO FOUNDATION of lies because I did not say what you claim I did. THAT is the very essence of "distortion."
"Any reasonable person would" not need to assume anything because they would have read the words "distribution center" that I wrote and completely understood the meaning of the concept. But NOT YOU! No, you have to have your "tax evasion schemes" to scream about.
You are the one who has been lying "about the stuff that is easily verified" such as the 2011 tax returns and the Financial Reports agreeing. I showed you they did. You have not bothered to even look, have you? That's probably because you wouldn't understand what you were seeing or reading if you DID look, just as the idiot reporter did not understand when he wrote his article claiming that Apple had not reported honestly to their investors what they had reported to the IRS, unaware of the REPORTING differences inherent in the law, yet it was right there in the footnotes. I pointed it out to you, but you don't even acknowledge it. You go blythely on with your lie.
Another LIE of yours is the claim that what the EU Commission has ordered is a "Fine". It is not. They are just ordering the recapture of the tax difference between what was paid and what the EU Commisioners say SHOULD have been paid. I.E. Pay the balance of the back taxes you owe. No "fine," no penalty, for non-payment, just pay what we calculate would have been the tax rate we think you should have paid. A fine is a criminal penalty. This is the same as if the IRS merely recalculated your taxes and says we disagree with your figures. Pay this instead.
You keep using the criminal terminology of "Tax Evasion" when even the EU Commission is not using those terms. Apple paid the taxes the Irish government said the owed. Ireland is claiming that Apple did not violate the law. The US government's TREASURY DEPARTMENT is saying that Apple did not violate the law, and is going to argue in Apple's defense. Apple used the law as it was written, under the advise of both governments and tax attorneys. That is NOT criminal. At every step they checked what they were doing with the government's involved to assure what they were doing was acceptable. They were AUDITED by multiple governments. . . Including the European Union. It was only when an ACTIVIST SOCIALIST, who has an agenda, was appointed to the chair of this Antitrust commission was it suddenly changed.
As Michael O'Leary, CEO of RyanAir pointed out in an article I posted this morning, this commission has been the most REVERSED commission in history of the EU because of her cockamamie theories of what she can do using the Antitrust laws. . . Just like this over reach. O'Leary points out that nations in the EU by TREATY have tax law autonomy, but this Antitrust Commissioner seems to think she can DICTATE Ireland's Tax Laws and Rates based on a regulation. She has been reversed on this by the EU's courts before and will again. She keeps trying.