The Apple subsidiary which supposedly makes all the money and conveniently isn't taxed on it doesn't even have employees in Ireland anyway.
It's entirely a paperwork confection to justify not paying taxes. If you did this in a country with a properly funded tax collector, you'd get told to pay and then they'd just seize the money or throw you in jail.
But when Apple do it Ireland celebrate because hey, instead of Apple choosing some other random place to fiddle their taxes, they're doing it in Ireland...
If you're American or (like me) British you shouldn't feel smug because your country enables much the same thing, just not in this specific case. Both the US and UK have strong rule of law (which means crooks feel sure when they collect the locals don't just shoot them and take it all) but weak transparency (which allows crooks to operate). The same formula which attracted Apple to Ireland.
Transparency improved in both US and UK in last forty years, but mostly so as to weed out small players. If you need to hide $400k from a bank job, neither country wants to help you any more. But if you have $400M from corrupt arms deals in the Middle East, they're very happy to have you as a valued customer and will be sure to slow walk any pesky "investigations" which threaten to reveal that you're a crook in time for you to stroll off with your money before anybody shows up with hand cuffs, especially because it's embarrassing for them to admit their "transparency" is still shit.
In the UK we instituted "beneficial ownership" rules requiring that companies must say which human individuals control them. But, while some dubious firms actually obeyed these rules, plenty more just filled out bogus data knowing the government doesn't want to look under any rocks as it knows it won't like what it sees. Companies House (the regulator) claimed it had zero funds to investigate even the most obviously bogus paperwork.
A campaigner had filed paperwork claiming their firm was owned by Tory politicians even though it wasn't - and IIRC suddenly Companies House found enough cash to prosecute exactly one bogus filing, the one embarrassing their political masters. Transparency? Transparent bullshit.
For context, the UK enables massive tax dodging and shady dealings through its network of crown dependencies and overseas territories, amounting to £152bn a year.
It's entirely a paperwork confection to justify not paying taxes. If you did this in a country with a properly funded tax collector, you'd get told to pay and then they'd just seize the money or throw you in jail.
But when Apple do it Ireland celebrate because hey, instead of Apple choosing some other random place to fiddle their taxes, they're doing it in Ireland...
If you're American or (like me) British you shouldn't feel smug because your country enables much the same thing, just not in this specific case. Both the US and UK have strong rule of law (which means crooks feel sure when they collect the locals don't just shoot them and take it all) but weak transparency (which allows crooks to operate). The same formula which attracted Apple to Ireland.
Transparency improved in both US and UK in last forty years, but mostly so as to weed out small players. If you need to hide $400k from a bank job, neither country wants to help you any more. But if you have $400M from corrupt arms deals in the Middle East, they're very happy to have you as a valued customer and will be sure to slow walk any pesky "investigations" which threaten to reveal that you're a crook in time for you to stroll off with your money before anybody shows up with hand cuffs, especially because it's embarrassing for them to admit their "transparency" is still shit.
In the UK we instituted "beneficial ownership" rules requiring that companies must say which human individuals control them. But, while some dubious firms actually obeyed these rules, plenty more just filled out bogus data knowing the government doesn't want to look under any rocks as it knows it won't like what it sees. Companies House (the regulator) claimed it had zero funds to investigate even the most obviously bogus paperwork.
A campaigner had filed paperwork claiming their firm was owned by Tory politicians even though it wasn't - and IIRC suddenly Companies House found enough cash to prosecute exactly one bogus filing, the one embarrassing their political masters. Transparency? Transparent bullshit.