What I don't understand is why Amazon and Apple are getting the punishment. They were abiding by the laws of the country they were in, and now getting punishment. Surely if any party were to be punished it would be the governments of Ireland and Luxembourg which sanctioned these agreements in the first place? It seems that the EU is less interested in law-abiding and more interested in that sweet, sweet U$D. Ex post facto law at its finest.
It's good that the EU is taking steps against these unfair deals, but IMHO it's not enough. In this "web era", we just can't accept that it's enough to open your headquarters in Luxembourg to only pay Luxembourg corporate taxes, when actually your EU operation is like 97% outside of Luxembourg. It's just not sustainable, it needs to change - Luxembourg is just stealing taxes from all other EU countries, that's all.
Not enough.<p>A 250M fine is almost a joke. Companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc, save Billions of dollars every single year by setting up "creative" tax schemes.<p>A 250M fine is almost an incentive to keep doing it.
I have always this question in my mind, If Amazon never made any profits, ( They are ALL invested back to somewhere ), or they decide to borrow $50 Billion, and have any profits left over from investment being paid to the loan's interest.<p>Basically there are Zero profits.<p>Why would there be Tax?<p>It doesn't matter if you are in US, EU, or anywhere else in the world. Surely No Profits = No Collected tax, or am i missing something obvious?
eu tax crackdown.<p>just another smoke screen while "the union" is on fire to keep the sheep calm and comfy on their fucking couch. greece? nobody's talking about that anymore. britain's decision to leave in peace? they're screwing around with that. catalonia? shows you the "values" of this great europe.<p>votes have shown that people are greatly unhappy and the clowns in brussels have nothing better to do than to pretend a few corporate bucks will benefit the people.
When Caesar divorced Pompeia, he said "my wife ought not even to be under suspicion". As a European I feel the same about the way the EU is plundering US tech companies. Maybe they really broke the law, but you should be above suspicion. When VW has not paid any fines in Europe for the emissions scandal, it's hard not to be suspicious about what's going on.<p>The Eurostoxx 50 is still below its 2007 peak (and that peak was below the 2000 peak). GDP growth has been pathetic. Almost a decade into the Greek crisis they're still just kicking the can down the road. Is the EU trying to be a productive economic system or a kleptocracy that survives on the scraps it can extract from the Americans? Get your house in order, then maybe these fines would not look as bad.
I'm actually quite pro europe, but the insidious influence of the French in particular and, to a geat extent in other ways, the Germans, over their desire for economic imperialistic dominion (now enriched tenfold with GB no longer party to anything going on) is a problem.<p>Ireland is a very small country with no natural resources. Its way of participating in the EU's drive for growth was the nation's economic policy and its well educated population as a base for American companies to bridge into Europe.<p>France clearly is bent out of shape because if other EU members can survive without gouging business, citizens et al with incredible levels of punitive taxation, then they can't continue their own shakedown forever without seeing business flight. Sooner or later they will have to relent and reduce their own taxes.<p>Same with the pursuit of Google, MS, Facebook et al. by Eurocrats with open portfolios.<p>Its an old fashioned shake down by the biggest self protecting bureaucracy outside of China. In my opinion.