Comment by ar0 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ar0 | Hacker News Reader

I don't really get what Apple is trying to achieve with this letter. Looking at my (continental) European colleagues, it comes across as aggressive bullying by a U.S. company and clearly harms public opinion of Apple, which cannot be a good thing for a company that sells consumer products. Maybe it looks differently from the Irish perspective, but obviously Ireland is a tiny market compared to France / Germany / etc., which are all countries where U.S. companies' (legal!) tax maneuvers aren't looked kindly at and where such a letter can only do more harm than good. People don't like the European Commission, but they like "lecturing from the Americans" even less.

In the end, this matter is a very complex legal question (1. were the Irish tax deals actually "deals" or just the day-to-day application of the Irish tax code?; 2. if they were "deals", were they illegal deals under EU rules against state support?). It is going to be answered by the European Court, which I guess (or at least hope) will not make its decision based on an "open letter" posted on the Internet.

Yeah this is weird. I like Apple products and I hate weird ass government taxes. (I run a company in Turkey, don't ask about the clusterfuck of corporate taxes here)

They managed to find ways to evade taxes. Which I can stomach. But writing such a letter and expecting sympathy? Yeah right. Good luck with that.

I reckon the letter is intended to maintain support in Ireland rather than the EU, which is a lost causes. Given the rise of EU scepticism and Brexit (remembering the UK and Ireland are extremely close) if Apple can maintain support in Ireland, Ireland will continue to push back strongly and might be somewhat successful.

Of course it could also back fire with the EU (particularly Germany) playing hard ball with both Ireland and the Brexit negotiations simultaneously and any negative effects on the UK economy scaring Ireland into compliance.

Irish sentiment is and remains vastly more pro-EU than it ever was in the UK.

That said this is a very cynical ploy by Apple.

> Irish sentiment is and remains vastly more pro-EU than it ever was in the UK.

Then why on earth would Apple think Ireland will side with them rather than the EU? If anything, the EU holds all the cards here since Ireland will have to negotiate with the EU post-Brexit, and who knows if Apple taxes will be a bargaining chip?

Why would Ireland need to negotiate with the EU?

Although I think not what was being referred to, the UK and Ireland do have a more porous border than most EU states do with their non-EU neighbours.

Ireland is its own country and part of EU. It is not part of the UK and is in no way 'brexiting'.

I'm sure at least in my country, France, people won't hear about that case, and those who do will only hear about Apple's letter and won't read any EC documents. Thus the "mass" will somehow side with criminals.

I would fear the same, but I believe this is all too good for the media to pass on.

Imagine the headlines comparing how much an average person pays on taxes with Apple.

The other camp will indeed slam EU for butting in (again).

It will mostly depend on the news outlet's agenda.

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