Apple Should Pay its Taxes

The European commission has ruled that that Apple and Ireland conspired to avoid paying taxes (by using a tax dodge called a corporate inversion). It has order Apple to pay Ireland nearly $13 b in back taxes. A tiny portion of the taxes it avoided paying in the EU and the US using this tax dodge.

Found out and penalized, Tim Cook published an open letter, claiming the EC judgement was unfair and would be reversed. He also threatened the EU with a loss of a jobs. Here’s what it actually said:

‘Apple has evaded paying taxes in the US and the EU for decades, using sleazy tax schemes, depriving them of hundreds of billions of dollars of tax revenue. This has made it possible for Apple to become the most valuable company in the world, to the enrichment of senior management and wealthy shareholders. We fully expect that any attempt by the EU to unjustly reverse this cozy arrangement shall be reversed by world class legal talent we’ve employed on our behalf. If that doesn’t work, we’ll find a way to punish the EU’