Smith is a really poor candidate. Hard to believe he was chosen over Angela Eagle. She could hardly have been as bad as him, surely?
Eagle would have been no better. She was useless even when interviewed by friendlies like Pienaar. He setup her to with a why do you think you will do better than Corbyn etc etc etc...and her reply was literally well I am Northern working class gay woman...and Big John was ok, and what else, what policies do you have...well as a Northern working class gay woman I know what policies ordinary people want...ok and what would they be....radio silence...
She showed some courage in challenging in the first place. Which is more than any other Labour MP did, including Smith himself.
She's not great but acquitted herself reasonably well at PMQs and has a certain authenticity that Smith seems (to me anyway) to lack. He just seems to me to be an oily opportunist.
Eagle's Iraq vote destroyed her chances.
Well, that's Labour's problem right there in a nutshell. If the only criterion is what you are against and being against something which happened 13 years ago, without any thought given as to why you were against something (there being honourable and dishonourable reasons for being against the Iraq war and with Corbyn - IMO - being on the dishonourable side of that argument) then it's little wonder you have a very poor choice of candidates.
This is how someone I know has put it, if the ruling is confirmed by the ECJ the Irish economy is under material threat.
How?
Multinationals would begin their march out of Ireland I guess, that's a lot of jobs moving overseas.
Even if the corporate tax rate is lower than other EU countries?
Has Ireland done many other similar sweetheart deals with other companies?
It is but without the honeypot rates 12.5% is not that different from 18% here or and it is higher than in other EU countries.
Quite a few of them, Shire is said to benefit from a deal that might constitute state aid, would they move to Ireland to gain 5.5% today and might they move back to Basingstoke without it given the inherent advantages of being in the UK?
Interesting Article, purely to pose the unlikely question 'what if Smith won'. It could be very angry.
There are the CLP nominations as a mini poll that shows roughly a 2:1 split of votes for Corbyn. In my own CLP the Corbyn vote was pretty soft, but still 2:1 in his favour. I came to the conclusion that Smith could win, but he probably won't. Nothing I've seen has changed that.
One thing Don might like to correct is the bit about Emily Thornberry - she is no longer Shadow Defence. Since the never-ending reshuffle she now has two jobs - Shadow Foreign Secretary and Shadow Brexit Secretary. Details matter...(and I know it takes a lot of effort to keep up with the ever-changing Shadow team)
I doubt that Corbyn knows who does what in his shadow cabinet.
''Multinationals would begin their march out of Ireland I guess, that's a lot of jobs moving overseas.''
Even if Ireland were made to enforce its headline rate of Corporation tax across the board, its still pretty low though, right? and very few companies get Apple's deal.
Why would Ireland give such a massive tax advantage to a company like Apple, and not others? Right or wrong, I can understand the appeal of state aid for nationally important companies - from steelworks to car companies. But Apple is not nationally important to Ireland, and it's foreign.
Any advantage they get from income from staff and other rates is surely dwarfed by the amount they lost in revenue.
Still, at least it's more ammunition for my one-man campaign against Apple.
I hadn't realised the tax bill was £11bn, I thought it was just £1bn! Wow.
Interestingly AAPL's annual dividend totals to around $11 Bn.
Insanely, Apple has to borrow to pay its dividend whilst sitting on a huge cash mountain overseas (which it can't remit to the USA without paying tax).
Hobbes' corollary (which I've only just read about on Wiki!) is surely of particular interest:
Plutarch questions whether the ship would remain the same if it were entirely replaced, piece by piece. Centuries later, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes introduced a further puzzle, wondering what would happen if the original planks were gathered up after they were replaced, and used to build a second ship. Hobbes asked which ship, if either, would be the original Ship of Theseus.
Jeremy Corbyn will comfortably be re-elected. The membership has undergone it's biggest change in the last 12 months and is even more pro-Corbyn than before. Many mainstream members who voted for Corbyn think it's too soon to ditch him. Others feel this is their last chance to have 'true socialism' and they're not going to let that slip away. Then another group recognises he hasn't been good enough but are more annoyed a the MPs who they think have never given him a fair chance and/or hold ordinary members in contempt.
Where I agree with Don is that those switching from Corbyn to Smith won't make a lot of noise because of fear of being abused on social media and also the natural human instinct of not wanting to admit you have made an error. But Corbyn's inbuilt lead is such that he near as damn it is unbeatable in the circumstances. Owen Smith will have done very well to reduce the Corbyn percentage from the 59.5% he received last time.
Totally agree.
But I also think this campaign has sowed the seeds of Corbyn's destruction. Bringing in a Stalinist supporter of the IRA to help launch his digital policy today again highlights just how useless - and that is being charitable - Corbyn is. Anger at the PLP wins it for him this time, but that will not last. And, as we all know, Corbyn cannot change.
This is how someone I know has put it, if the ruling is confirmed by the ECJ the Irish economy is under material threat.
How?
Multinationals would begin their march out of Ireland I guess, that's a lot of jobs moving overseas.
Where would they move to though ? Where else in the EU to go ?
I'd guess they'd split between the UK and the Netherlands, it makes more sense for their operational European HQ to based in Surrey and for their tax HQ to be based in the Netherlands. Without the deal that would probably be the case.
''Multinationals would begin their march out of Ireland I guess, that's a lot of jobs moving overseas.''
Even if Ireland were made to enforce its headline rate of Corporation tax across the board, its still pretty low though, right? and very few companies get Apple's deal.
Why would Ireland give such a massive tax advantage to a company like Apple, and not others? Right or wrong, I can understand the appeal of state aid for nationally important companies - from steelworks to car companies. But Apple is not nationally important to Ireland, and it's foreign. Any advantage they get from income from staff and other rates is surely dwarfed by the amount they lost in revenue. Still, at least it's more ammunition for my one-man campaign against Apple.
It goes back to 30+ years, a long standing relationship and Ireland's wish to keep the European HQ of Apple. I also avoid Apple products.
I hadn't realised the tax bill was £11bn, I thought it was just £1bn! Wow.
Interestingly AAPL's annual dividend totals to around $11 Bn.
Insanely, Apple has to borrow to pay its dividend whilst sitting on a huge cash mountain overseas (which it can't remit to the USA without paying tax).
Mr. Price, to add a fantasy element (if Theseus doesn't count as fantasy), what if it's a living ship? Would the 'soul' pass to the new ship with old timbers or be in the old ship with new timbers, as a person loses and replaces cells?
[As an aside, some timbers on a ship are called 'futtocks', which is a rather nice word].
I hadn't realised the tax bill was £11bn, I thought it was just £1bn! Wow.
Interestingly AAPL's annual dividend totals to around $11 Bn.
Insanely, Apple has to borrow to pay its dividend whilst sitting on a huge cash mountain overseas (which it can't remit to the USA without paying tax).
Not a tax expert, but if Apple US begins to nominally lose money it makes it easier for them to repatriate money, right?
I hadn't realised the tax bill was £11bn, I thought it was just £1bn! Wow.
Interestingly AAPL's annual dividend totals to around $11 Bn.
Insanely, Apple has to borrow to pay its dividend whilst sitting on a huge cash mountain overseas (which it can't remit to the USA without paying tax).
Plus I guess they can get exceptionally low rates from the bank given that they are bigger than any bank itself in terms of market cap !
I hadn't realised the tax bill was £11bn, I thought it was just £1bn! Wow.
Interestingly AAPL's annual dividend totals to around $11 Bn.
Insanely, Apple has to borrow to pay its dividend whilst sitting on a huge cash mountain overseas (which it can't remit to the USA without paying tax).
Not a tax expert, but if Apple US begins to nominally lose money it makes it easier for them to repatriate money, right?
Not sure how they'll manage that without transparent transfer shennanigans given the amount of worshippers customers they have.
Smith is a really poor candidate. Hard to believe he was chosen over Angela Eagle. She could hardly have been as bad as him, surely?
Eagle would have been no better. She was useless even when interviewed by friendlies like Pienaar. He setup her to with a why do you think you will do better than Corbyn etc etc etc...and her reply was literally well I am Northern working class gay woman...and Big John was ok, and what else, what policies do you have...well as a Northern working class gay woman I know what policies ordinary people want...ok and what would they be....radio silence...
She showed some courage in challenging in the first place. Which is more than any other Labour MP did, including Smith himself.
She's not great but acquitted herself reasonably well at PMQs and has a certain authenticity that Smith seems (to me anyway) to lack. He just seems to me to be an oily opportunist.
Eagle's Iraq vote destroyed her chances.
Well, that's Labour's problem right there in a nutshell. If the only criterion is what you are against and being against something which happened 13 years ago, without any thought given as to why you were against something (there being honourable and dishonourable reasons for being against the Iraq war and with Corbyn - IMO - being on the dishonourable side of that argument) then it's little wonder you have a very poor choice of candidates.
Whilst Iraq did take place 13 years ago, the consequences are all around us. It set the Middle East on fire, and the fires still rage today.
Eagle not merely voted for Iraq (a very serious error, but she could argue she was misled by a charming lunatic ).
The much more serious problem -- to my mind -- is that Eagle voted AGAINST any inquiry into the Iraq war.
It is one thing to make a mistake, no matter how catastrophic. It is another thing entirely to try and cover up the extent of the mistake.
Smith is a really poor candidate. Hard to believe he was chosen over Angela Eagle. She could hardly have been as bad as him, surely?
Eagle would have been no better. She was useless even when interviewed by friendlies like Pienaar. He setup her to with a why do you think you will do better than Corbyn etc etc etc...and her reply was literally well I am Northern working class gay woman...and Big John was ok, and what else, what policies do you have...well as a Northern working class gay woman I know what policies ordinary people want...ok and what would they be....radio silence...
She showed some courage in challenging in the first place. Which is more than any other Labour MP did, including Smith himself.
She's not great but acquitted herself reasonably well at PMQs and has a certain authenticity that Smith seems (to me anyway) to lack. He just seems to me to be an oily opportunist.
Eagle's Iraq vote destroyed her chances.
Well, that's Labour's problem right there in a nutshell. If the only criterion is what you are against and being against something which happened 13 years ago, without any thought given as to why you were against something (there being honourable and dishonourable reasons for being against the Iraq war and with Corbyn - IMO - being on the dishonourable side of that argument) then it's little wonder you have a very poor choice of candidates.
I agree. But it is what it is. If Eagle had been the candidate then this campaign would have been a complete breeze for Corbyn and not even Don would be thinking of anything other than an easy win. Once Corbyn goes - as he will at some stsge before 2020 - that changrs, of course.
I hadn't realised the tax bill was £11bn, I thought it was just £1bn! Wow.
Interestingly AAPL's annual dividend totals to around $11 Bn.
Insanely, Apple has to borrow to pay its dividend whilst sitting on a huge cash mountain overseas (which it can't remit to the USA without paying tax).
Not a tax expert, but if Apple US begins to nominally lose money it makes it easier for them to repatriate money, right?
Not sure how they'll manage that without transparent transfer shennanigans given the amount of worshippers customers they have.
O/T: Got my battery replaced at the (literal) Apple Temple in SF a few days ago. They decided to wipe the hard drive and clean install the OS for no good reason. I have a backup, but what a totally unnecessary pain in the arse!
I hadn't realised the tax bill was £11bn, I thought it was just £1bn! Wow.
Interestingly AAPL's annual dividend totals to around $11 Bn.
Insanely, Apple has to borrow to pay its dividend whilst sitting on a huge cash mountain overseas (which it can't remit to the USA without paying tax).
Not a tax expert, but if Apple US begins to nominally lose money it makes it easier for them to repatriate money, right?
Not sure how they'll manage that without transparent transfer shennanigans given the amount of worshippers customers they have.
O/T: Got my battery replaced at the (literal) Apple Temple in SF a few days ago. They decided to wipe the hard drive and clean install the OS for no good reason. I have a backup, but what a totally unnecessary pain in the arse!
I have an iPhone and a MacBook Air and hate Apple. Seriously viewing MS more favorably these days - how did Apple manage that?
She showed some courage in challenging in the first place. Which is more than any other Labour MP did, including Smith himself.
She's not great but acquitted herself reasonably well at PMQs and has a certain authenticity that Smith seems (to me anyway) to lack. He just seems to me to be an oily opportunist.
Eagle's Iraq vote destroyed her chances.
Well, that's Labour's problem right there in a nutshell. If the only criterion is what you are against and being against something which happened 13 years ago, without any thought given as to why you were against something (there being honourable and dishonourable reasons for being against the Iraq war and with Corbyn - IMO - being on the dishonourable side of that argument) then it's little wonder you have a very poor choice of candidates.
Whilst Iraq did take place 13 years ago, the consequences are all around us. It set the Middle East on fire, and the fires still rage today.
Eagle not merely voted for Iraq (a very serious error, but she could argue she was misled by a charming lunatic ).
The much more serious problem -- to my mind -- is that Eagle voted AGAINST any inquiry into the Iraq war.
It is one thing to make a mistake, no matter how catastrophic. It is another thing entirely to try and cover up the extent of the mistake.
I didn't know she had voted against the inquiry. Was that a whipped vote or her own decision?
The Middle East was not set on fire by the Iraq war. Though it hardly helped, I grant you. It certainly made a bad situation worse. But the Middle East was hardly a haven of peace and prosperity pre-2003.
The trouble with making Iraq the lodestar for future decision-making is that it risks fighting the last war. Just because that decision was wrong does not mean that anyone who was against it is necessarily right about difficult decisions now. Any political party needs to look forward to the next decade. Who is the person best able to help formulate policies for the challenges of the future?
And, sticking with the Middle East, is Labour really saying that the person best able to meet the challenges of Islamist terrorism is Corbyn? Really??
She showed some courage in challenging in the first place. Which is more than any other Labour MP did, including Smith himself.
She's not great but acquitted herself reasonably well at PMQs and has a certain authenticity that Smith seems (to me anyway) to lack. He just seems to me to be an oily opportunist.
Eagle's Iraq vote destroyed her chances.
Well, that's Labour's problem right there in a nutshell. If the only criterion is what you are against and being against something which happened 13 years ago, without any thought given as to why you were against something (there being honourable and dishonourable reasons for being against the Iraq war and with Corbyn - IMO - being on the dishonourable side of that argument) then it's little wonder you have a very poor choice of candidates.
Whilst Iraq did take place 13 years ago, the consequences are all around us. It set the Middle East on fire, and the fires still rage today.
Eagle not merely voted for Iraq (a very serious error, but she could argue she was misled by a charming lunatic ).
The much more serious problem -- to my mind -- is that Eagle voted AGAINST any inquiry into the Iraq war.
It is one thing to make a mistake, no matter how catastrophic. It is another thing entirely to try and cover up the extent of the mistake.
I didn't know she had voted against the inquiry. Was that a whipped vote or her own decision?
The Middle East was not set on fire by the Iraq war. Though it hardly helped, I grant you. It certainly made a bad situation worse. But the Middle East was hardly a haven of peace and prosperity pre-2003.
The trouble with making Iraq the lodestar for future decision-making is that it risks fighting the last war. Just because that decision was wrong does not mean that anyone who was against it is necessarily right about difficult decisions now. Any political party needs to look forward to the next decade. Who is the person best able to help formulate policies for the challenges of the future?
And, sticking with the Middle East, is Labour really saying that the person best able to meet the challenges of Islamist terrorism is Corbyn? Really??
Furthermore, the disaster that was the 'peace' does not per se make the decision to go to war wrong.
''Multinationals would begin their march out of Ireland I guess, that's a lot of jobs moving overseas.''
Even if Ireland were made to enforce its headline rate of Corporation tax across the board, its still pretty low though, right? and very few companies get Apple's deal.
Why would Ireland give such a massive tax advantage to a company like Apple, and not others? Right or wrong, I can understand the appeal of state aid for nationally important companies - from steelworks to car companies. But Apple is not nationally important to Ireland, and it's foreign.
Any advantage they get from income from staff and other rates is surely dwarfed by the amount they lost in revenue.
Still, at least it's more ammunition for my one-man campaign against Apple.
Furthermore, the disaster that was the 'peace' does not per se make the decision to go to war wrong.
It's a tenuous case though. You certainly won't find anyone at all who says, "I was against the decision to go to war at the time but in retrospect it was the right thing to do but it should have been planned better."
I hadn't realised the tax bill was £11bn, I thought it was just £1bn! Wow.
Interestingly AAPL's annual dividend totals to around $11 Bn.
Insanely, Apple has to borrow to pay its dividend whilst sitting on a huge cash mountain overseas (which it can't remit to the USA without paying tax).
Not a tax expert, but if Apple US begins to nominally lose money it makes it easier for them to repatriate money, right?
Not sure how they'll manage that without transparent transfer shennanigans given the amount of worshippers customers they have.
O/T: Got my battery replaced at the (literal) Apple Temple in SF a few days ago. They decided to wipe the hard drive and clean install the OS for no good reason. I have a backup, but what a totally unnecessary pain in the arse!
I have an iPhone and a MacBook Air and hate Apple. Seriously viewing MS more favorably these days - how did Apple manage that?
It's the control freakery and lack of interface with anything non-Apple. My wife's iPhone is a better thing than my Samsung but I won't buy Apple. An Android Apple would rock! But it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens.
Love my Mac. When I was constructing 50mb models it was far more stable than all my mates' non-Macs.
But, that said, I think it is more to do with cost (I.e. Ram) - an equivalent cost non Mac would have been about the same but no-one was keen to spend 1.1k on a PC...
There is a perception that PCs should cost less than 800 quid, at least amongst those responsible for purchasing that I know
Furthermore, the disaster that was the 'peace' does not per se make the decision to go to war wrong.
It's a tenuous case though. You certainly won't find anyone at all who says, "I was against the decision to go to war at the time but in retrospect it was the right thing to do but it should have been planned better."
If WMD had been found, much of the opposition would have evaporated even if the "peace" was as badly handled as happened.
Or some would have shifted their opposition on the basis of the mishandled peace or on the basis that doing what was necessary to secure a stable peace was imperialist or some other reason. There were honourable reasons for opposing the intervention. And dishonourable ones.
If WMD had been found but the peace ended up with the same mess as now would it have been right or not to support the war?
The fact that Labour's travails concentrate only on being opposed to the Iraq war and not on why a person was or was not opposed shows that they have not really thought about the issues associated with it at all. IMO anyway.
Robert Kimbell Knifeman stabbed police officer at police station in Toulouse, "because he represented France". https://t.co/BBK8667QY0
"attacker showed signs of having mental health problems." - immediate diagnosis at the ready...
Well if you stab someone surely you have mental issues?
Really? So all those stabbing people at Nottinghill Carnival did so because of mental health issues, not that they spotted somebody from a rival gang? Or had beef with somebody over something or other?
Robert Kimbell Knifeman stabbed police officer at police station in Toulouse, "because he represented France". https://t.co/BBK8667QY0
"attacker showed signs of having mental health problems." - immediate diagnosis at the ready...
Well if you stab someone surely you have mental issues?
Really? So all those stabbing people at Nottinghill Carnival did so because of mental health issues, not that they spotted somebody from a rival gang? Or had beef with somebody over something or other?
To stab someone just cause you have beef with them is a sure sign of mental instability. I'm just yanking your chain, it shouldn't be used as a blanket excuse for violent crime.
Mr. Patrick, point of order: the Ninth Circle of Hell is reportedly frigid.
The Ninth Circle of Hell is the ladies section at Marks & Spencers - which seems adequately heated to me. (But totally inadequately 'seated'). Shops must know men generally hate shopping but don't offer seats. I reckon if M&S put a few sofas by the fitting rooms and got an alcohol licence they'd earn more from the bored husbands than those who must be obeyed.
Mr. Patrick, point of order: the Ninth Circle of Hell is reportedly frigid.
The Ninth Circle of Hell is the ladies section at Marks & Spencers - which seems adequately heated to me. (But totally inadequately 'seated'). Shops must know men generally hate shopping but don't offer seats. I reckon if M&S put a few sofas by the fitting rooms and got an alcohol licence they'd earn more from the bored husbands than those who must be obeyed.
Upgrade to Hobbs. Definitely a better class of Man Sofa.
Mr. Patrick, point of order: the Ninth Circle of Hell is reportedly frigid.
The Ninth Circle of Hell is the ladies section at Marks & Spencers - which seems adequately heated to me. (But totally inadequately 'seated'). Shops must know men generally hate shopping but don't offer seats. I reckon if M&S put a few sofas by the fitting rooms and got an alcohol licence they'd earn more from the bored husbands than those who must be obeyed.
Upgrade to Hobbs. Definitely a better class of Man Sofa.
Yes - I have snoozed there! It's the big shops (M&S, Topthingy, Zara, dept stores, etc) that are expressly designed to suck out a man's will to live.
Mr. Patrick, point of order: the Ninth Circle of Hell is reportedly frigid.
The Ninth Circle of Hell is the ladies section at Marks & Spencers - which seems adequately heated to me. (But totally inadequately 'seated'). Shops must know men generally hate shopping but don't offer seats. I reckon if M&S put a few sofas by the fitting rooms and got an alcohol licence they'd earn more from the bored husbands than those who must be obeyed.
With SKY sport too. "No, carry on love....yes that looks lovely...try the rest on....."
I hadn't realised the tax bill was £11bn, I thought it was just £1bn! Wow.
Interestingly AAPL's annual dividend totals to around $11 Bn.
Insanely, Apple has to borrow to pay its dividend whilst sitting on a huge cash mountain overseas (which it can't remit to the USA without paying tax).
Not a tax expert, but if Apple US begins to nominally lose money it makes it easier for them to repatriate money, right?
Not sure how they'll manage that without transparent transfer shennanigans given the amount of worshippers customers they have.
O/T: Got my battery replaced at the (literal) Apple Temple in SF a few days ago. They decided to wipe the hard drive and clean install the OS for no good reason. I have a backup, but what a totally unnecessary pain in the arse!
I have an iPhone and a MacBook Air and hate Apple. Seriously viewing MS more favorably these days - how did Apple manage that?
It's the control freakery and lack of interface with anything non-Apple. My wife's iPhone is a better thing than my Samsung but I won't buy Apple. An Android Apple would rock! But it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens.
My dislike of Apple dates back to when Apple and Acorn had a secretive joint venture. It's codename around the office was "Fruit and nut"
It's so much easier for Apple than it is Android or MS. Apple strictly control their own hardware, meaning they can target software for that hardware. Android and especially MS have to cater for all sorts of weird hardware configurations.
MS do an amazing job in creating OS's and software that run well on so many different hardware configurations.
Apple just target one or two platforms. It's *so* much easier.
Afternoon. Caching up on the Apple story, is the main issue here not that Apple is a very different company now, compared to what it was in 1991 when the deal with Ireland was made? The majority of its sales now are not hardware but rather media and software delivered electronically.
How countries and companies manage electronic sales are going to be a huge discussion point in the future, given that the physical operation can be pretty much anywhere in the world.
From Ireland's point of view, given this ruling would they be better off reducing their corporation tax rate, from 12.5% to 7.5 or even 5% - thus ensuring a smaller slice of a much bigger pie and providing incentives for companies already there not to move on. It would send a message that they, the Irish are the good guys and the EU the bad guys.
Of course, from a UK point of view, leaving the Single Market will encourage UK subsidiaries of multinational companies to set up and pay their taxes in the UK.
Afternoon. Caching up on the Apple story, is the main issue here not that Apple is a very different company now, compared to what it was in 1991 when the deal with Ireland was made? The majority of its sales now are not hardware but rather media and software delivered electronically.
How countries and companies manage electronic sales are going to be a huge discussion point in the future, given that the physical operation can be pretty much anywhere in the world.
From Ireland's point of view, given this ruling would they be better off reducing their corporation tax rate, from 12.5% to 7.5 or even 5% - thus ensuring a smaller slice of a much bigger pie and providing incentives for companies already there not to move on. It would send a message that they, the Irish are the good guys and the EU the bad guys.
Of course, from a UK point of view, leaving the Single Market will encourage UK subsidiaries of multinational companies to set up and pay their taxes in the UK.
The digital sales stuff is a nightmare. EU introduced regulation a start of last year and technically no matter where you are based you are supposed to pay the VAT in the local market of where the digital item is sold.
Despite it being badly thought out and really should have been restricted to over a certain volume of sales, I think it did force EU based companies to charge the proper VAT rates.
However, one obvious thing that always struck me is, if you are say based in say China and you just ignore charging the VAT on a digital item, what are the EU going to do? Bugger all is the answer. The EU has never prosecuted any small / medium firm over this based outside of the EU, and I know a number of niche online businesses based in the US that are either unaware or don't care...all they care about is IRS and showing they paid their US taxes.
Mr. Urquhart, that VAT move by the EU was horrendous idiocy. It was meant to target Apple, but data gathering and tax-payments were so onerous micro-businesses (authors selling books direct or knitters selling knitting patterns, etc) either closed down or were pushed onto sites like Amazon, who handle all the bureaucracy for you.
I hadn't realised the tax bill was £11bn, I thought it was just £1bn! Wow.
Interestingly AAPL's annual dividend totals to around $11 Bn.
Insanely, Apple has to borrow to pay its dividend whilst sitting on a huge cash mountain overseas (which it can't remit to the USA without paying tax).
Not a tax expert, but if Apple US begins to nominally lose money it makes it easier for them to repatriate money, right?
Not sure how they'll manage that without transparent transfer shennanigans given the amount of worshippers customers they have.
O/T: Got my battery replaced at the (literal) Apple Temple in SF a few days ago. They decided to wipe the hard drive and clean install the OS for no good reason. I have a backup, but what a totally unnecessary pain in the arse!
I have an iPhone and a MacBook Air and hate Apple. Seriously viewing MS more favorably these days - how did Apple manage that?
It's the control freakery and lack of interface with anything non-Apple. My wife's iPhone is a better thing than my Samsung but I won't buy Apple. An Android Apple would rock! But it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens.
But this is Apple's usp, or one of them - it is a totally self-contained system which works. It's just a shame they stopped making an apple laserprinter then I could avoid any other company's products in the home office.
Mr. Urquhart, that VAT move by the EU was horrendous idiocy. It was meant to target Apple, but data gathering and tax-payments were so onerous micro-businesses (authors selling books direct or knitters selling knitting patterns, etc) either closed down or were pushed onto sites like Amazon, who handle all the bureaucracy for you.
It was and I was personally affected by it. I was fortunate enough that my EU business was significant that the cost could be absorbed and I bought off the shelf software to manage it for me plus some extra accountancy costs.
It showed up the worst of the EU. The idea was fine, the execution terrible and no matter who pointed this out, the rule stood. One tiny change could have made it a reasonable regulation.
Mr. Urquhart, aside from needless panic (I removed my stuff from Smashwords, even though that's fine, as is Amazon) it didn't affect me directly. That said, I'm still pissed off about it, and that kind of delinquent idiocy, achieving the opposite of a stated aim whilst crushing small businesses (often just little old ladies or housewives/husbands making a little extra cash) did not exactly endear the EU to me.
Mr. M, was it an accident, or had you enraged a stonemason?
Just the usual 70s/80s pub fight. Luckily it was under my chin, nothing serious.
Ouch. I have several weeding tools in the garden I would most certainly not like used on me.
I had a run of bad luck in the early 80s. My then friends used to call me 'Indiana' because every day was (seemingly) an adventure. My face was clearly working off some bad karma. By 1982 I'd accumulated a total of 182 facial stitches. To this day, cleaning my teeth is an interesting experience. On the bright side, I didn't actually lose the sight in my right eye, for which I'm very grateful.
Mr. Urquhart, aside from needless panic (I removed my stuff from Smashwords, even though that's fine, as is Amazon) it didn't affect me directly. That said, I'm still pissed off about it, and that kind of delinquent idiocy, achieving the opposite of a stated aim whilst crushing small businesses (often just little old ladies or housewives/husbands making a little extra cash) did not exactly endear the EU to me.
Why they didn't just say unless you exceed the VAT threshold in each market it doesn't affect you, I have no idea. Amazon, Apple etc exceed it in minutes, where as knitting patterns r us who sells one pattern to some grandma in Estonia wouldn't have to change anything.
Mr. Urquhart, that VAT move by the EU was horrendous idiocy. It was meant to target Apple, but data gathering and tax-payments were so onerous micro-businesses (authors selling books direct or knitters selling knitting patterns, etc) either closed down or were pushed onto sites like Amazon, who handle all the bureaucracy for you.
It was and I was personally affected by it. I was fortunate enough that my EU business was significant that the cost could be absorbed and I bought off the shelf software to manage it for me plus some extra accountancy costs.
It showed up the worst of the EU. The idea was fine, the execution terrible and no matter who pointed this out, the rule stood. One tiny change could have made it a reasonable regulation.
VAT is one of the EU's worst ever inventions. Why didn't the UK make a fuss before it joined?
A US-type retail sales tax could collect as much money for almost no cost. Business to business sales are outside the system.
But best of all was the location for the event, a place called Newspeak House in Shoreditch. The place is an alternative venue set up by Ed Saperia, who worked on the Green Party’s 2015 election campaign, and who is apparently an admirer of Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. It was a doubleplusgood place to launch a policy on, among other things, the civil liberties implications of new technology.
Mr. Urquhart, that VAT move by the EU was horrendous idiocy. It was meant to target Apple, but data gathering and tax-payments were so onerous micro-businesses (authors selling books direct or knitters selling knitting patterns, etc) either closed down or were pushed onto sites like Amazon, who handle all the bureaucracy for you.
It was and I was personally affected by it. I was fortunate enough that my EU business was significant that the cost could be absorbed and I bought off the shelf software to manage it for me plus some extra accountancy costs.
It showed up the worst of the EU. The idea was fine, the execution terrible and no matter who pointed this out, the rule stood. One tiny change could have made it a reasonable regulation.
VAT is one of the EU's worst ever inventions. Why didn't the UK make a fuss before it joined?
A US-type retail sales tax could collect as much money for almost no cost. Business to business sales are outside the system.
The US is the only OECD country not to have VAT or something very similar. It's not the EU's fault. Governments like consumption taxes.
Afternoon. Caching up on the Apple story, is the main issue here not that Apple is a very different company now, compared to what it was in 1991 when the deal with Ireland was made? The majority of its sales now are not hardware but rather media and software delivered electronically.
How countries and companies manage electronic sales are going to be a huge discussion point in the future, given that the physical operation can be pretty much anywhere in the world.
From Ireland's point of view, given this ruling would they be better off reducing their corporation tax rate, from 12.5% to 7.5 or even 5% - thus ensuring a smaller slice of a much bigger pie and providing incentives for companies already there not to move on. It would send a message that they, the Irish are the good guys and the EU the bad guys.
Of course, from a UK point of view, leaving the Single Market will encourage UK subsidiaries of multinational companies to set up and pay their taxes in the UK.
The luck of the Irish. They woo Apple and some high paid jobs on a low tax prospectus. Years later they get the tax anyway. Win/Win
Comments
I
Quite a few of them, Shire is said to benefit from a deal that might constitute state aid, would they move to Ireland to gain 5.5% today and might they move back to Basingstoke without it given the inherent advantages of being in the UK?
There are the CLP nominations as a mini poll that shows roughly a 2:1 split of votes for Corbyn. In my own CLP the Corbyn vote was pretty soft, but still 2:1 in his favour. I came to the conclusion that Smith could win, but he probably won't. Nothing I've seen has changed that.
Any advantage they get from income from staff and other rates is surely dwarfed by the amount they lost in revenue.
Still, at least it's more ammunition for my one-man campaign against Apple.
Plutarch questions whether the ship would remain the same if it were entirely replaced, piece by piece. Centuries later, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes introduced a further puzzle, wondering what would happen if the original planks were gathered up after they were replaced, and used to build a second ship. Hobbes asked which ship, if either, would be the original Ship of Theseus.
But I also think this campaign has sowed the seeds of Corbyn's destruction. Bringing in a Stalinist supporter of the IRA to help launch his digital policy today again highlights just how useless - and that is being charitable - Corbyn is. Anger at the PLP wins it for him this time, but that will not last. And, as we all know, Corbyn cannot change.
I also avoid Apple products.
https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/news/78505/jeremy-corbyns-digital-economy-guru-told-labour
I'm sure you are correct, but the Irish probably take the view that if Apple moved they would get nothing from anywhere.
[As an aside, some timbers on a ship are called 'futtocks', which is a rather nice word].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_the_Horne
Eagle not merely voted for Iraq (a very serious error, but she could argue she was misled by a charming lunatic ).
The much more serious problem -- to my mind -- is that Eagle voted AGAINST any inquiry into the Iraq war.
It is one thing to make a mistake, no matter how catastrophic. It is another thing entirely to try and cover up the extent of the mistake.
Either they make a nominal loss and can shift cash, or they make crazy profits.
The massively disappointing sequel to World of Warcraft
Using an Improbability Drive presumably?
Does this mean all political decisions will be taken via online referenda?
The Middle East was not set on fire by the Iraq war. Though it hardly helped, I grant you. It certainly made a bad situation worse. But the Middle East was hardly a haven of peace and prosperity pre-2003.
The trouble with making Iraq the lodestar for future decision-making is that it risks fighting the last war. Just because that decision was wrong does not mean that anyone who was against it is necessarily right about difficult decisions now. Any political party needs to look forward to the next decade. Who is the person best able to help formulate policies for the challenges of the future?
And, sticking with the Middle East, is Labour really saying that the person best able to meet the challenges of Islamist terrorism is Corbyn? Really??
Robert Kimbell
Knifeman stabbed police officer at police station in Toulouse, "because he represented France". https://t.co/BBK8667QY0
But, that said, I think it is more to do with cost (I.e. Ram) - an equivalent cost non Mac would have been about the same but no-one was keen to spend 1.1k on a PC...
There is a perception that PCs should cost less than 800 quid, at least amongst those responsible for purchasing that I know
Or some would have shifted their opposition on the basis of the mishandled peace or on the basis that doing what was necessary to secure a stable peace was imperialist or some other reason. There were honourable reasons for opposing the intervention. And dishonourable ones.
If WMD had been found but the peace ended up with the same mess as now would it have been right or not to support the war?
The fact that Labour's travails concentrate only on being opposed to the Iraq war and not on why a person was or was not opposed shows that they have not really thought about the issues associated with it at all. IMO anyway.
It's so much easier for Apple than it is Android or MS. Apple strictly control their own hardware, meaning they can target software for that hardware. Android and especially MS have to cater for all sorts of weird hardware configurations.
MS do an amazing job in creating OS's and software that run well on so many different hardware configurations.
Apple just target one or two platforms. It's *so* much easier.
An interesting article on MS's OS policy:
http://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2016/05/onecore-windows-everywhere-cross-platform/
I make only £6 on James.
How countries and companies manage electronic sales are going to be a huge discussion point in the future, given that the physical operation can be pretty much anywhere in the world.
From Ireland's point of view, given this ruling would they be better off reducing their corporation tax rate, from 12.5% to 7.5 or even 5% - thus ensuring a smaller slice of a much bigger pie and providing incentives for companies already there not to move on. It would send a message that they, the Irish are the good guys and the EU the bad guys.
Of course, from a UK point of view, leaving the Single Market will encourage UK subsidiaries of multinational companies to set up and pay their taxes in the UK.
Despite it being badly thought out and really should have been restricted to over a certain volume of sales, I think it did force EU based companies to charge the proper VAT rates.
However, one obvious thing that always struck me is, if you are say based in say China and you just ignore charging the VAT on a digital item, what are the EU going to do? Bugger all is the answer. The EU has never prosecuted any small / medium firm over this based outside of the EU, and I know a number of niche online businesses based in the US that are either unaware or don't care...all they care about is IRS and showing they paid their US taxes.
It showed up the worst of the EU. The idea was fine, the execution terrible and no matter who pointed this out, the rule stood. One tiny change could have made it a reasonable regulation.
Should our new PM be nicknamed TTT or 3T from now on?
The EU is bloody stupid when it comes to stuff like this.
A US-type retail sales tax could collect as much money for almost no cost. Business to business sales are outside the system.
But best of all was the location for the event, a place called Newspeak House in Shoreditch. The place is an alternative venue set up by Ed Saperia, who worked on the Green Party’s 2015 election campaign, and who is apparently an admirer of Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. It was a doubleplusgood place to launch a policy on, among other things, the civil liberties implications of new technology.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-john-rentoul-digital-future-manifesto-plans-backward-blairites-ridiculous-a7216501.html
https://www.ft.com/content/786d2ff2-6eb5-11e6-a0c9-1365ce54b926
https://twitter.com/ned_donovan/status/770645009234268161