Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
EU COMPETITION COMMISSIONER Margrethe Vestager has promised to investigate more US multinationals, in the wake of her momentous finding that Ireland granted Apple billions in illegal state aid.
Late last week, 185 American CEOs asked German chancellor Angela Merkel to intervene in the Apple tax ruling, which ordered the largest corporation in the world to repay €13 billion in back taxes to the Irish exchequer.
The Government – supported by some other political parties – has decided to appeal the ruling, on the basis that it involved an incursion into Ireland’s sovereignty, and a threat to our corporate tax regime.
The decision to forgo the €13 billion featured heavily in protests in Dublin city centre last Saturday, and some economists have asked whether other US companies benefited from sweetheart deals in Ireland.
Commissioner Vestager, for one, believes that other companies may need to be investigated. Asked whether she will check Apple’s rivals she said: “I will”. She added:
I keep thinking about all the CEOs who just make sure that their companies do pay their taxes. They exist too.
Several other large multinationals pay very little tax in Ireland.
The accounts for Ritea Limited, which operates Starbucks in this country, shows the company made a profit of over €1 million for the 12 months up to July 26, 2015 — but paid no tax for the period.
Starbucks paid €4,196 in Irish corporation tax in 2014, after two years of making no contribution to the State’s coffers.
Superheroine
Last Wednesday, MEPS hailed EU anti-trust commissioner Margaret Vestager as a “superheroine” for handing US tech giant Apple a €13 billion tax bill in Ireland.
For more than one hour during a debate about her 30 August ruling, almost all of the 30 MEPs who took the floor congratulated Vestager, a Danish politician with a steely reputation who smiled, took notes with a pink pen and thanked the speakers.
“When I was young in the 1970s, there was a television series, ‘the $6 million man,’” Dutch liberal politician Cora van Nieuwenhuizen told her.
This superhero has been surpassed by a superheroine, the €13 billion commissioner!
Philippe Lamberts, the Belgian co-president of the Green Party, also offered effusive praise.
As an ecologist, I am opposed to human cloning, and yet, when I see you, I really want multiple Margaret Vestagers’.
More compliments flowed from politicians like French socialist Pervenche Beres, who made her point raising her iPhone 6. She said:
We are all drugged, intoxicated by these machines.
“However, we are overjoyed that you have so severely punished this company.”
German ecologist Sven Giegold chimed in, saying: “We should give you a prize.”
The daughter of two Lutheran ministers, Vestager is known for her no-nonsense style. And those who know her warn that she is a formidable negotiator who never gives up.
Sometimes nicknamed back home Margrethe III, an allusion to Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II, she became her country’s first woman minister, at the age of 29, when she was named in 1998 to the education and ecclesiastical affairs portfolio.
And under her leadership, her party doubled its performance in the 2011 parliamentary elections.
With reporting from AFP. - © AFP, 2016
There should be a survey asking if anyone ever lied on a Journal survey
Just wait until you see tomorrow’s poll ;)
Interviewer. What are your weaknesses?
A. I speak my mind
Interviewer. ” that’s not a weakness ”
A. I don’t give a f… What you think
I had to lie, or I’d never got a job as a surgeon.
Benton to med student: ” so what do you want to be a doctor… It’s a common question of the interview.
Student ” I want to help people”
Benton “ugh…”
Student: I don’t know I just thought it would be cool”
Benton: “well at least that’s honest”
Student “so I should say that?/”
Benton “of course not!”
Unlike a lot of gen y (many of whom seem to b speeding towards 30 without ever having worked) I worked since I was 10 unbroken until 2011 besides my lc year, so I’ve never had to lie on the CV, but I’ve found one thing w/interviews…they are just a BS forum where you’re asked tired predictable questions and you give tired hack answers. If you give your interviewer outside the box answers (or god forbid honest ones) they are less likely to give u the job. To a lot of these drones in suits conformity and blending in is what they demand, which makes them look all the more ridiculous when they use buzz words like innovation, having rejected the very outside the box thinkers at interview you need to produce it.
If you follow the medical council reports most of our foreign doctors are struck off in their homeland or the UK or awaiting charges of misconduct…still the HSE is sure they are fit to practise lol
@Snorre
More than 50% of all foreign doctors in Ireland are incompetent or criminal? That’s definitely true, or you’re racist. One or the other but almost definitely the first one. Have some internet points to go with your smug xenophobia.
In all seriousness it works both ways,the amount of lies management spout, honesty isn’t always the best policy.
How do people think politicians get work????
By running for election.
An apathetic electorate?
Lying to the people to get elected?
I keep getting told I’m over qualified, what about dumbing down the CV ?
That’s really just a polite way of saying “I can see you’re perfectly qualified for the position, but I just don’t like your face”
Or ‘Can’t let this guy get hired, he’s smarter than me!’
Being told that you are over-qualified simply means they don’t want to pay you a lot and think that you might expect more than they are willing to offer.
And usually the person who says thatyou are over qualified should be awarded with a fist in the snot!
It’s a major insult if you are qualified for the jobto be told we are actually lookingfor someone dumber than you in my books.
Its not you its me…
Looking at the pole results i think people are still telling porkies lol
Don’t be too sure. Just because one person thinks it’s okay to do something doesn’t mean others think the same.
We tend to assume that all people behave the same way we do. That is regularly not the case.
Well from a person who sat in on many interviews over the years it was my job to hire people, and i can assure you that more than 50% of those i interviewed where at some point less than ” honest ” in some part of their cv in one way or another ! Just saying is all :-)
I don’t have too !!!
Ok ok I might have altered a date here and there.
I may have presented things in a favourable light, offered a casual reader the chance to draw certain conclusions which may not be entirely valid, been economical with the actualite or made material omissions.
Lied? Never.
I am a terrible liar, there’s no way I could get away with making up experience or qualifications! I have made some experience sound more relevant than it was, and invented hobbies because I can’t write “drinking and napping” as hobbies.
Alan Shatter… Is that really you?
“Lied” is such a strong word…”Bent the truth” is probably a better way of putting it.
Here’s the advice a 4th year lecturer game the class about writing a CV.
“Never tell a lie on your CV but never tell the truth either”
I’ve never had a problem with my cv it’s the interview that I have a problem with. Having social anxiety makes interviews really hard. Arrrgh talk about cringe! Practice makes perfect as the say :)
Anyone who lies on their CV is an idiot.
Well yea … An idiot would have to lie to get a job.
Indeed Glen, you’d b an idiot to not notice how many lies they expect u to tell to get in.
Ive never had to lie about education or experience cos I’ve been lucky enough to have oppertunity in that area but in interviews they seem to expect u to BS them, you’re sitting there thinking I know the answer u want me to give…I know its a hack answer u know it too”,,so why are we playing this game?
The easiest thing about telling the truth is that you don’t have to remember what you said.
Remember lies always come back to bite
I have a relative who said they knew Java when they didn’t even know what Java was beyond “something to do with computers). They’ve told me they regularly lie in interviews (they’re still looking for a job unsurprisingly)
To say I was incredulous that someone would claim to know Java in an interview with (less than) zero experience is a bit of an understatement.
I’ve never lied on a CV but I do have friends who are job hunting at the minute – they are well qualified nearing 30′s however both are getting married this year. One of the girls went to two interviews with her engagement ring on and was asking casually when she was getting married etc, never got either job. Was afraid the focus was on the marriage and therefore the employers might think babies are next. Took of the ring for her next interview and got offered the position. May be just coincidence but the other friend is now taking hers off too.
I had to do the same thing. First interview I went for with no ring on, got the job!
Sure Enda kenny was a roofer in London ! Now he’s running the country ! Definitely serious lies on his CV
Theyve ways of sussing u out. If u say you’re qualified in xyz or have xyz experience they will b able to tell from way u answer questions if you’re for real. Don’t say u worked somewhere if u didnt , u never know who knows who where. My sisters husband asked her to go thru CVS from his job other week cos there were applications for her type of position in his compny . By sheer fluke she came across someone she recently worked with who was on consideration list and was able to tell him she never held position she said she did in past job. You’re safer making a good snappy cover note to get noticed than or formatting the CV in a way that gets the info across in a short compelling way. Too much risk in lying.
It usually catches up on them in the end
Especially if they are unable to do a task that they stated on their CV.
exactly, and also might i add, people coming to this country often lie on their cv in order to get a job, very easy when you’ve listed a company 10,000 miles away. i know, i’ve shared with many and was even asked “what do you think? should put i worked in costa or start bucks or shall i put calvin klein jeans retail assistant here?, and they’d have up to 3-4 different cvs all carefully altered, one for cafes, one for retail, one for bar work and one for office work, ALL pumped up with this that and other crap. of course, when the employer feels they can exploit the situation, min.wage for long hours, no overtime, opportunity to shout and pile it on, they really don’t care, a 6 month trial and a but of quick training is worth it when it comes cheap and easy.
i’ve never lied on one, its a small place here, we don’t have that option.
The only people that lie of their cv are people that need to lie to get any job
Like everyone in government.?
Anybody who says in the voting poll they havin’t lied typing a cv is lying, everybody lies !!
Why do they lie? I never lied on mine, I never needed to.
It’s a 2-way street, employers lie to the interviewees too – is anyone concerned about that? I would like to see a survey on that.
Surprised at the poll. Has nobody else ever said they’ve conversational french/another language and just praying the interviewers don’t ask you to speak it?
Sins of commission – NO.
Sins of ommission – YES.
Did the people who are somehow working on this feckin island lie, is that the trick?
There was this fella doing an interview and the HR Manager said to him, “I am glad to tell you we liked your CV and you have done very well in your interview. Just one last thing, if I were to ask you what is your biggest weakness what would it be?” And the man said ” I have a problem with saying things out straight and I think I might be a bit too honest”
HR Manager : “I don’t think that being too honest is a weakness”
Man: “Well I don’t give a shit what you think”
Search YouTube for garabaldis corporate method.. That’s the employer I want.
I was lectured in UCD by a visiting lecturer whose PhD was false. Years later, they found him out! Basic qualifications matter (like for visiting lecturers or doctors/nurses), and employers are foolish if they don’t find out about important matters.
Sure. No experience like google and its stack overflow in the IT industry.
3,590 of those 3,592 no votes are fibbing
have your say