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TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has said that he is not worried about the prospect of multinationals pulling out of Ireland on foot of the European Commission’s investigation into Apple’s tax arrangements in this country.
Kenny was speaking at the announcement of 400 new jobs at PayPal in Co Louth when he said that the government will mount a robust defence of its corporate tax regime and insisted this was about one specific company.
“We’re very clear in our strong and robust defence of the intention of the Commission to carry out an investigation,” Kenny said this morning.
“That’s about a specific technical issue – about a specific company. It is nothing to do with the rate of corporate tax. We’ve made that perfectly clear.”
Announcing the probe earlier this month, the European Commission said that it has concerns that Ireland may have applied tax law to Apple in a way that allows it to reduce its payment “below the level it should pay based on a correct application of the tax rules.”
Effectively the Commission is investigation whether rules in relation to state aid have been broken – a claim the Irish government strongly denies.
Kenny insisted that the Irish corporate tax regime is “statutory based” and is “ethically implemented”, adding: ”We will defend this very robustly.”
The Taoiseach said the government is also participating in the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) process to address areas where companies may be avoiding tax.
“Obviously there is an international requirement to have an international response to a global problem here. As I’ve said on so many occasions the digital world is moving ahead of the legislative world and we need to have a response to that.”
He said that the OECD is the best organisation to mount that international response AND reiterated that “this is specifically about a technical issue in respect of one individual company”.
Kenny added: “Obviously the Commission is looking at companies in the Netherlands and Luxembourg and we’re very happy about that.”
Speaking at the same announcement today, Jobs Minister Richard Bruton denied that the CEOs of multinational companies bring up the tax issue during meetings with him.
“This is an investigation that is occurring in a number of EU states – it’s a state aid investigation. It’s not an investigation of our tax system. So an investigation of very specific, technical rulings that were made in respect of the tax code,” he said.
Bruton said that Irish officials believe the Apple tax deal does not constitute state aid and will defend this position robustly.
He added: “I don’t see this as anyway a source of concern. We believe that the state aid claim will not stand up to scrutiny and we will be defending that.”
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My solder balls haven’t given me any issues so far, but if they do. . I shall bring them into the doctor for a gander.
Hilarious.
This issue is old, not new, why is the journal reporting this, the iPhone 6 and 6 plus released 2 years ago. The touch issue first came up not long after that. Hardware and software problems with all technology, not sure why the journal seems to overly report on issues with apple products.
bit too defensive of Chinese made iPhone
The trick is not to be a sheep and use a product that doesnt have an apple logo.
Yes Gavin because non-Apple products never have problems? Unfortunately with the rapidity of modem product development and production cycles problems like this will arise from time to time no matter what the product or the supplier. As long as the manufacturer is reasonable and replaces the faulty product it isn’t a big deal.
Meh the trick is to buy electronics as cheaply as possible as it’s all made in sweatshops in China.
Or don’t have it in your back pocket.
my Sammy S5 has been in and out of pockets so many times without any problems…dont get an iphone..simple
@Gavin: Indeed
Solution: Buy a HTC.
Triied that. It broke in less than two months.
Broke,how? You buying the cheap models?
Hopefully Apple will go back to the glass and carbon fibre in the 5,5s been holding off upgrading as the six is no where near the same quality.
Carbon fibre?
Don’t touch one, with a bargepole.
stop or you will wake the isheep
My phone’s better than your phone.
Grow up.
But, my phone actually is better than your phone. Really.
Yep… I have been that Soldier… I’m just after getting my 4th iPhone 6+ over the last 10 weeks. The first one had this problem when within warranty and the 2 replacements developed the same problem (one within 3 weeks and one as soon as I turned the phone on). I was back and forth to Three with these replacements (turns out you don’t get new phones but refurbished ones).
Anyhow after 3 replacement phones and 8 weeks without a phone, I gave up on Three and went straight to Apple who have me a new phone (after a lot of back and forth).
Turns out this is an issue with the 6plus but not with 6S.
iPhones are useless. All upgraded models are just cosmetic now.
iPhones are not useless as my 6plus and iPhone 4 still work perfectly,And I have Andriod devices aswell.all depends on the users needs,and capabilities.
Ok Ken – But they are way over-hyped & over-priced.
The iShit strikes again.
Wouldn’t you be sickened after spending all that money
You’d be diseased
I have never had this issue with my iPhone 6plus(9.3.3)64gb wounded does it happen only on 16gb?
You wish the only difference is memory size everything else is the same
Have my 5s over 2 years ago & yes battery is poo in it but other then that I’m lucky it hasn’t given me any hassle apart from a weak wifi signal sometimes but few ppl have said it could be down to otterbox case but I kinda need to hold on to this for as long as I can so the case stays!
have your say