I wonder how much Irelands payroll taxes would have been were the corporations not to have set up shop in Ireland, they would have just gone somewhere with a decent tax arrangement.
Unemployment in the 70's and 80's was brutal in Ireland, personally, I think the government at the time made the right choice, however, this "selective treatment" allowed Apple to pay tax rate of 1% on European Union profits in 2003 down to 0.005% in 2014, FFS.
A better question is where the world would be if nation states wouldn't allow multinational companies to pay only negligible taxes by taking part in a race to the bottom.
With tax deals like this one you're just ripping other countries off.
That constant pressure to do more with less... deadly.
With "beneficial" (sic) mutations like this one you're just ripping other organisms off.
Ireland isn't somehow magically fitter than other countries and thus able to offer 0.005% corporate tax. It's only relying on attracting an above-normal amount of companies by having low taxes and draining other countries of their tax benefits in the same turn. It wouldn't work if everybody was doing it. In fact countries would just turn to shit.
It seems to fit like a glove, with ruthless disregard for any kind of sustainability, draining parasitic/symbiotic relationships and all.
You mean countries competing for business? Why is that bad?
It would sound ridiculous if you applied it to companies "Car companies offering lower and lower prices is just a race to the bottom! If this keeps up we'll have no car companies as they'll all be bankrupt!".
Also your comparison is pretty bad. The direct cost per unit is pretty high for a car in a car company, the one for a company in a country is negligible. So it's more like a publisher selling digital goods, except that there's no copyright, preventing the others from selling exactly the same for a lower price.
I think it's a bad idea to tell a country that they can't charge a lower price (taxes) in order to sell more business (have companies move there).
And you can go lower than that amount if you attract an abnormal amount of companies through an abnormally low tax.
Overall I'm happy that gov'ts have to compete for companies. It's a great way to force them to be more efficient. If they never have to worry about their spending, why would they ever control it?
My only point is that countries competing for business is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Even without competition Governments have the drive to keep taxes as low as possible to boost the economy and keep local businessmen happy.
Next, Luxembourg and Netherlands.
Unemployment is still high in certain areas. The bank bailout crippled the country, forced really high taxes on those who really shouldn't have been held accountable (low income earners).
That said, Apple (and many other mult-nationals) seized an opportunity and ran with it. The moral responsibility to pay taxes should be on the CEO and the board.
In 2014, Apple made a profit of $78.5 billion.
That would explain why the percentage went a lot lower.