Apple Pay, the iPhone’s built-in payment system, is reportedly in the sights of EU investigators. They are looking into whether Apple is giving its system an unfair advantage over competitors.
Apple could get an early indication about the likely outcome of its giant European Union (EU) tax case early this week.
Apple was in court last week protesting its 13 billion ($14.4 billion) tax bill from the EU. Although the case is likely to drag on for months, two related cases will be ruled on this week. They may offer Apple some clues about its chances of success.
Apple has a fight on its hands this week as it goes to court to battle the world’s biggest tax case. The company will protest its 2016 European Union tax bill of 13 billion euros ($14.4 billion).
The EU charged Apple the money after saying it had an unfair tax arrangement with Ireland. Apple has always protested its innocence. This week, a court will start the process of deciding whether the regulators were right.
Apple will challenge the European Union in court next month over the 13 billion euro ($14.4 billion) Apple was ordered to pay in 2016.
The appeal is due to take place on September 17 and 18 at Europe’s General Court.
President Donald Trump is stepping up to defend Apple. Well, kind of.
The president ordered an investigation into France’s planned tax on big tech companies like Apple, Alphabet, Facebook and Amazon. The Office of the United States Trade Representative said the tax “unfairly targets” American companies.
Update 1: France passed the tax Thursday, according to Agence France-Presse: “The legislation — dubbed the GAFA tax in an acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon — was passed by a simple show of hands in the Senate upper house after it was agreed by the National Assembly lower chamber earlier this month.”
The dutiful iPad has found itself in the middle of the United Kingdom’s bitter divide over leaving the European Union.
A freshly sworn-in member of European Parliament cried foul over being issued an iPad, implying to followers on Twitter the device was nothing more than a pricey perk.
But her grandstanding backfired when critics informed her that the iPad is a cost-saving tool for her to do her job.
The United States should follow the European Union’s lead and investigate Silicon Valley tech giants monopoly-like powers, President Donald Trump says.
Speaking with CNBC, Trump said “something’s going on” when it comes to the concentrated power of today’s tech titans. By fining these companies, he says that the EU gets “all this money — we should be doing that [too.]”
Germany’s finance minister Olaf Scholz has slammed tech giants that “pay taxes nowhere.”
It’s the latest shot at tech giants such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon which have previously clashed with the European Union on tax issues. In an interview with CNBC, Scholz argued that “we should find a global agreement” to shut tax avoidance loopholes.
Apple has agreed to pay French authorities around $571 million in back taxes, according to new reports.
Apple today confirmed the deal but did not disclose the sum itself. The agreement comes after a multi-year audit into Apple’s accounts by the French tax administration.
The Austrian government will announce plans this month to impose a levy on giant tech companies that make huge online profits that largely go untaxed.
Austria joins France to be among the first countries to tax internet and technology companies that shuttle profits to avoid higher taxes in each company.
