Italian Regulators Conclude Corporate Tax Investigation Against Apple

[MacRumors]

Italian regulators have completed an investigation into allegations that Apple failed to pay EUR879 million ($964 million) in corporate taxes, according to Reuters. The report states that, under Italian law, prosecutors can now ask a judge to bring the case to trial. Apple claims that it has paid all necessary taxes in countries that it operates and is confident that the process will be resolved.

Apple's flagship Via Roma retail store in Torino, Italy​

The investigations accuse Apple of booking profits generated in Italy through an Irish subsidiary in an effort to lower its taxable income base and save nearly EUR900 million from 2008 through 2013. Apple argues that it's "one of the largest tax payers in the world and paid every euro of tax it owed wherever it did business," and believes that the allegations against its employees are without merit.

It said the Italian tax authorities had audited Apple's Italian operations in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and confirmed it was in full compliance with the OECD documentation and transparency requirements.

"These new allegations against our employees are completely without merit and we're confident this process will reach the same conclusion," it said.

Apple is one of several multinational tech companies, including Amazon and Google, that have faced corporate tax investigations in the United States and Europe. The U.S. Senate accused Apple of avoiding billions in income taxes in May 2013, while the European Union accused the company of receiving illegal state aid from Ireland after completing a formal investigation into its questionable tax practices in the country last year.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Italian Regulators Conclude Corporate Tax Investigation Against Apple

 

[Santabean2000]

Italy needs money... Let's milk the biggest cash cow we can find!

 

[AppleInTheMud]

Italy needs money... Let's milk the biggest cash cow we can find!

Apple must really be almost like religion to you... And if you would read the whole thing, Apple is going/ has been going to court in several nations. That happens if you cheat or get to "creative"

Insert your face and Apple instead.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc

 

[jayducharme]

Change the laws and you'll change the behavior. Apple follows whatever legal means it has to keep its spending in check. Every corporation does. The difference with Apple is that its earnings are on such a massive scale, eclipsing most other world businesses, that it's examined more closely.

 

[Mike Oxard]

Italy needs money... Let's milk the biggest cash cow we can find!

It wouldn't need so much money if Apple had paid it's taxes.

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

Apple must really be almost like religion to you... And if you would read the whole thing, Apple is going/ has been going to court in several nations. That happens if you cheat or get to "creative"

Insert your face and Apple instead.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc

Apple did not break any laws. These investigations happen when greedy liberals smell money that they can't have.

 

[MacrumoursUser]

Italy needs money... Let's milk the biggest cash cow we can find!

You know there is a chance they might have a case here.

 

[Nosferax]

When in Rome... Pay you taxes...

If you do business in a foreign country, you have to abide by their rule. If Apple doesn't want to do that then they can close up shop, pick up their toys and go home.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Italy's justice system sucks. Even after Apple wins they can repeatedly start over the process because they allow double jeopardy.

 

[AppleInTheMud]

Apple did not break any laws. These investigations happen when greedy liberals smell money that they can't have.

Feel sorry for you, when you think it's like that.

 

[solamar]

It wouldn't need so much money if Apple had paid it's taxes.

Are you kidding me? Italy is one of the most politically corrupt gov'ts on earth..

They literally consider bribes as part of the legal system.

 

[asiga]

Apple did not break any laws. These investigations happen when greedy liberals smell money that they can't have.

Are you talking about the greed in countries trying to get such money, or about the greed in Apple having an online store that (just for paying less taxes) gives international (rather than local) invoices to customers so that they cannot deduce their tax unless they're international businesses?

I think that "greedy liberals" label matches both the countries and Apple.

 

[samiwas]

Apple did not break any laws. These investigations happen when greedy liberals smell money that they can't have.

Oh, I didn't know you were one of Apple's accountants or lawyers! Good for you!

Maybe these investigations happen when governments discover greedy corporations hiding behind their creative accounting. You do know that there are greedy corporations, right?

 

[MacrumoursUser]

Are you kidding me? Italy is one of the most politically corrupt gov'ts on earth..

They literally consider bribes as part of the legal system.

No more corrupt than US of A.

 

[dannyyankou]

In before people confuse tax avoidance (legal) with tax evasion (illegal).

 

[samcraig]

Apple did not break any laws. These investigations happen when greedy liberals smell money that they can't have.

The irony of your statement makes me laugh.

Look - if they failed to pay some taxes, then they owe them. If not, then (hopefully) they will be found compliant.

Either way - being investigated isn't a reason to get all pissy about the situation. Are they going to ask you to open up your wallet?

 

[Attonine]

In before people confuse tax avoidance (legal) with tax evasion (illegal).

Exactly. The core problem is the law makers making incompetent laws. At the moment we do not know whether Apple are guilty of anything. We do know however, that recently, on both sides of the Atlantic, corporations have been victimised for tax avoidance, which is completely legal - and in some cases could be argued a fiduciary obligation, yet lawmakers have done absolutely nothing to resolve the broken tax codes.

 

[Rocketman]

This is happening in Europe and the Americas. "regulators" are going after deep pocket banks and multi-nationals and "looking for trouble" and fining them considering the regulatory process is a monologue with themselves. There is no due process, only proclimations.

What's worse, in the USA the government itself caused the crisis with policies to force banks to issue loans to low income and low down payment borrowers. Then to compound maters the regulators allowed or required securitization, taking loans off the books of the banks and selling them to independent investors, where the loans cannot be resolved in the normal process, with renegotiations and write-offs.

Then the government fined the banks for following their requirements. Billions of dollars, which the government simply kept. No "victim" got a penny.

Rocketman

 

[davidec]

Are you kidding me? Italy is one of the most politically corrupt gov'ts on earth..

They literally consider bribes as part of the legal system.

That is ignorance at its finest. Shows you how little you know about affairs outside of your own.

 

[sodapop1]

That is ignorance at its finest. Shows you how little you know about affairs outside of your own.

Perhaps misinformation but certainly not ignorance. I recall seeing a recent documentary that discussed various types of corruption in Italy.

 

[alvindarkness]

Maybe these investigations happen when governments discover greedy corporations hiding behind their creative accounting.

And people have been accusing Apple for a lack of creativity lately. Well done creative and innovative Apple accountants. Even they are obsessed with making things thinner.

 

[yaxomoxay]

That is ignorance at its finest. Shows you how little you know about affairs outside of your own.

Although the Italian goverment can't be considered the purest, I would agree that the original comment was out of proportion.

 

[kd5jos]

If then...

If Apple broke the law, then I'm sure the case against them will be made in court.
If they didn't break the law, then the case will be made in court.
Just because there is an ALLEGED wrong doing... that doesn't mean there is a wrong doing until it is proven.
So looking at peoples comments, Apple automatically did it because they were investigated, which is the wrong answer. Or Apple didn't do it because... Apple. Yes, that is also the wrong answer.
It's great to see people present their opinions. You can be of the opinion that Apple is guilty just because they are investigated, you aren't right, but okay...
I think we are going to discover that space aliens are funneling trillions of dollars of unobtanium to Apple in a bid to ghey agenda, windowz sux, gold watch.
There, at least what I said was entertaining...

 

[Edsel]

When government taxes, tax laws and government regulations become too much of a burden, corporations and people move to less expensive, less regulated domiciles. This has been happening for millenniums and this is why many U.S. corporations have moved their operations to less burdensome locations.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Perhaps misinformation but certainly not ignorance. I recall seeing a recent documentary that discussed various types of corruption in Italy.

Documentaries would not make a point of view a truth. Corruption is in every government. If I recall correctly there's a good study about US corruption on the latest issue of PAR (Public Administration Review), and a nice article on one of the last few issues of "Governing, States and Local"