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Comment by bryanlarsen | Hacker News Reader

There are two distinct outrages here:

- Apple avoiding paying taxes on foreign income to the USA

- Apple avoiding paying European taxes to anybody

Your argument holds weight on the former. However, it obfuscates the second, where Apple pays taxes on its European income at a rate of 0% to Ireland. That's a true outrage.

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Didn't the rest of the EU agree to that when they let Ireland have the tax code that it does and still be part of the EU? It doesn't seem outrageous to me at all. Stupid on their part maybe, but they're the ones that write the tax codes. They wrote books on who needs to be paid what to be able to sell in the EU, handed them to Apple, Apple read them, and then has gone about abiding by them.

Apple doesn't write the rules. It's ridiculous to criticise them for them.

Maybe so, but the outrage for 0% should be had towards the people who made a 0% tax rate: the EU/Ireland.

Being outraged at Apple is like being outraged at the weatherman about the weather.

On the latter, isn't that how the EU is supposed to work? I can base my company in an EU country of my choice and not have to pay income taxes for sales in the other EU countries?

Similar to basing a company in a US state without corporate income tax, and not owing income tax on sales made in other states. Though the difference is that Federal taxes in the US are much larger than state taxes, while there isn't a broad EU corporate income tax, is there?

No, the point is not that European sales are taxed in Ireland, it is that they are not taxed at all.This is special treatment Apple got by cutting a deal with the Irish authorities

Actually, I don't get the feeling that a single person in this discussion is upset on behalf of Ireland's tax revenues. Why shouldn't a sovereign nation get to decide that they'd rather have Apple HQ there for other reasons and forego some or all of the tax revenue? Tax incentives to lure businesses are common and reasonable.

Because their actions are neither fair to other businesses ( Apple's tax emeption was an individually negotiated deal) nor other EU countries as the income is not taxed at all.

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