Apple hit with record EU tax bill

Yahoo – AFP, Danny Kemp, August 30, 2016

The European Union has ordered Apple to pay a record 13 billion euros in
back taxes in Ireland (AFP Photo/Philippe Huguen)

Brussels (AFP) - The EU ordered tech giant Apple on Tuesday to pay a record 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland, a move Washington warned could damage hugely important transatlantic economic ties.

Brussels said Apple, the world's most valuable company, avoided virtually all tax on its business in the bloc by illegal arrangements with Dublin which gave the company an unfair advantage over competitors.

Apple and the Irish government immediately said they would appeal against the European Commission ruling, with the iPhone maker warning it could cost European jobs.

The White House meanwhile cautioned against "unilateral" measures by the EU.

The company's shares lost some of their shine after the ruling, down 0.7 percent in early afternoon trading, making for a more than 3 percent loss over the past two weeks ahead of the highly anticipated ruling.

"This decision sends a clear message. Member states cannot give unfair tax benefits to selected companies, no matter if European or foreign, large or small," EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.

"The Commission's investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years," she added.

Ireland has attracted multinationals over many years by offering extremely favourable sweetheart tax deals to generate much-needed jobs and investment.

But after a three-year investigation Brussels said the arrangement with Apple broke EU laws on state aid.

The findings come amid growing tensions between Washington and Brussels over a series of EU anti-trust investigations targeting other giant US companies such as Google, Amazon, McDonald's, Starbucks and Fiat Chrysler.

The European Commission launched an inquiry three years ago into tax breaks

that Ireland offered iPhone-maker Apple (AFP Photo/Siska Gremmelprez)

'Devastating blow'

Apple has had a base in the southern city of Cork since 1980 and employs nearly 6,000 people in Ireland, through which it routes its international sales totalling billions.

Apple chief Tim Cook said he was "confident" the EU ruling would be overturned, adding that the Silicon Valley giant was the biggest taxpayer in Ireland, the United States and the world.

"The most profound and harmful effect of this ruling will be on investment and job creation in Europe," he said.

Cook also warned that the ruling was a "devastating blow to the sovereignty of EU member states over their own tax matters", echoing the concerns of Dublin over the decision.

Ireland's Finance Minister Michael Noonan described the ruling as "bizarre" and "an exercise in politics by the Competition Commission".

Dublin, which suffered from harsh austerity measures after it was bailed out during the eurozone debt crisis, has vigorously defended its low tax rates as a way of boosting the economy.

"If you look at the small print on an Apple iPhone, it says designed in California and manufactured in China and that means any profits that accrued didn't accrue in Ireland and so I can't see why the tax liability is in Ireland," he said.

But Vestager said Apple's Irish operation was a sham -- Apple's "so-called head office in Ireland only existed on paper. It had no employees, no premises and no real activities."

Apple paid an effective corporate tax rate of just 0.005 per cent on its European profits in 2014 -- equivalent to just 50 euros for every million, Vestager said.

The Apple tax bill dwarfs the previous EU record for a state aid case -- 1.3 billion euros for the Nurburgring race track in Germany.

While the 13-billion-euro ($14.5-billion) sum itself is unlikely to trouble Apple with its massive $600 billion of market capitalisation and $234 billion in revenue last year, the political ramifications are huge.

US anger

Washington has made increasingly angry comments over the case in recent weeks, and on Tuesday it echoed Apple's warnings that the tax bill could hurt the European economy.

"We are concerned about a unilateral approach," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest, adding that the move "threatens to undermine progress that we have made collaboratively with the Europeans to make the international taxation system fair."

The US Treasury said the ruling "could threaten to undermine foreign investment, the business climate in Europe, and the important spirit of economic partnership between the US and the EU."

The Apple decision may also complicate struggling EU-US talks on what would be the world's biggest free trade deal, meant to be completed before US President Barack Obama steps down in January.

French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday said he doubted agreement could be reached by then.

Tax avoidance has moved sharply up the political agenda since EU governments adopted tough austerity policies to balance the public finances, driving public resentment that the rich paid relatively little tax.

The issue was highlighted close to home by the LuxLeaks scandal which revealed that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's native Luxembourg gave companies huge tax breaks while he was prime minister.

In October Brussels ordered US coffee giant Starbucks and Italian automaker Fiat to each repay up to 30 million euros ($34 million) in back taxes to the Netherlands and Luxembourg respectively.

#UPDATE Apple ordered to pay record 13 billion-euro Irish tax bill https://t.co/ycty2yXNoz pic.twitter.com/uxyGZ01qPt

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 30, 2016

Microsoft builds massive €2bn data centre in Noord Holland

DutchNews, August 9, 2016

Microsoft is building a €2bn data centre in Noord Holland province, in the heart of the region’s agricultural area, the Financieele Dagblad said on Tuesday. 

The work is being carried out in relative secrecy, screened off by fences running along the Agriport business park just off the A7 motorway, the paper said. 

Microsoft has been attracted by the cheap land, the good glass fibre infrastructure and sufficient energy supplies, the FD said. 

However, the project itself is fairly hush hush and all the companies involved in the work have been told not to talk in public about their roles. In negotiations with the local Hollands Kroon council, the project has been given the code name Orange, the FD said. 

Work on the project began in 2014 and the first data centre has already been completed. Three more are now being built and experts say the completed site will be the biggest data centre in Europe. 

The FD says there are more than 180 data hotels in the Netherlands, accounting for 30% of European storage capacity. Google is currently building a massive centre in Eemshaven.

Related Article:

Google invests €600m in massive Groningen data centre

Use the Gospel as your GPS, pope tells huge mass in Poland

Yahoo – AFP, Ella Ide, July 31, 2016

Pope Francis looks on during a mass in the Campus Misericordiae in Brzegi,
near Krakow on July 31, 2016 at the end of the World Youth Day

Pope Francis celebrated mass Sunday with over 1.5 million pilgrims in a vast sun-drenched field in Poland, wrapping up an emotionally charged trip with some choice technological metaphors.

In a nod to today's internet-dominated world, Francis urged the faithful, who had travelled to Poland from all over the world, to "download the best link of all, that of a heart which sees and transmits goodness without growing weary".

"Make the Gospel your own, so that it can serve as a satnav for you on the highways of life," he said during the very spirited service.

Even the music was given the techno treatment, with youngsters, nuns and even some bishops leaping and twirling to hymns beefed up with a thumping dance beat.

High-spirited teenagers, boy scouts, priests and families had camped under the stars in the vast "Campus Misericordiae" (Field of Mercy) near the city of Krakow ahead of the final mass of a week-long Catholic festival.

Francis encouraged the assembled worshipers to be dreamers who believe "in a new humanity", one that "rejects hatred between peoples" and "refuses to see borders and barriers".

The trip's final festivities were attended by "between 2.5 and 3.0 million people," 2016 World Youth Day spokesperson Anna Chmura told AFP. Polish police put the number at "over 1.5 million."

Hundreds of thousands of people had streamed to the grassy site on Saturday with folding chairs, sleeping bags, umbrellas and sun-hats.

Graphic showing details of World Youth Day, to which Pope Francis will 

travel July 25 - 31

'Trip of a lifetime'

"This is the trip of a lifetime, for me and my whole family," said 29-year-old Mexican pilgrim Isaac Victoria, as volunteers handed out bottles of water to the thirsty crowd.

At the evening vigil on Saturday, Francis warned that today's technology also had its dangers, chastising "drowsy and dull kids who confuse happiness with a sofa", and urging them to get out and live life rather than spending it glued to their smartphones.

Francis announced that the next World Youth Day would be held in Panama in 2019, before flying back to Rome Sunday evening.

Latin America's first pontiff had faced stiff competition at the start of his five-day trip with the memory of immensely popular Polish pope John Paul II, whom Catholics recognise as a saint. But Francis quickly made the festivities his own.

After visiting the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, he warned that the cruelty seen there "did not end" with World War II.

The "world is at war", Francis said, but the way to "overcome fear" was to welcome people fleeing conflicts and persecution -- a message with particular resonance in Poland, which has taken a hard line against refugees.

On Saturday he prayed for God to rid the world of the "devastating wave of terrorism".

"In these dangerous times, he is convincing people not to be afraid to open up," pilgrim Kasia Czajka, 40, said.

"While John Paul II was especially focused on the young, Francis is for all people in need".

Catholic faithful wait for the arrival of Pope Francis on July 31, 2016 in

the vast "Campus Misericordiae" near the Polish city of Krakow

'Multiculturalism as opportunity'

The head of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics cracked joke after joke with young people gathered nightly beneath his window, cranking up the party spirit at an event dubbed "the Catholic Woodstock".

The medieval centre of Krakow has been overrun all week by flag-waving groups from China to Samoa and Mexico, who were entertained between masses with concerts, break-dancing and football matches.

But Friday was a day of mourning as Francis walked silently through the notorious wrought-iron "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free) gate at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, where 1.1 million people were murdered.

Freeing himself from the imposing security laid on for his visit, Francis sat on a bench among the trees and bowed his head in prayer before meeting Holocaust survivors and Catholics who had helped save Jews.

"Lord, have mercy on your people. Lord, forgive so much cruelty," the pope wrote in a memorial book.

In a heartfelt appeal to the world's young, he said it was up to them to fight xenophobia and "teach us how to live in diversity, in dialogue, to experience multiculturalism not as a threat, but an opportunity".