Apple can expect to get a final verdict on whether it can continue development on its proposed 850 million euro ($960 million) data centre in Athenry, Ireland later this month.
An oral hearing concerning the major development took place earlier this year, and inspector Stephen Kay has now submitted his recommendations to the Irish advisory board about the project.
Apple’s tax drama in Europe will finally come to a close later this fall.
The iPhone-maker has come under scrutiny from the European Union due to its tax deal with Ireland that safe guards Apple from paying taxes on billions of dollars in profits. Ireland’s finance minister revealed that he has no idea which way the decision will go, but he was told it’s coming soon.
Concerns about the effect Apple’s massive Irish data center will have on badger and bat populations may have momentarily suspended the company’s plans, but Apple representatives have assured locals the $950 million project will be largely invisible.
Robert Sharpe, Apple’s senior director of global data center services appeared at a hearing in Galway County this week to address concerns about the 500 acre data center and revealed why it’s so important to Apple’s expansion plans in Europe.
As part of a hearing concerning its proposed 850 million euro ($960 million) data center in Athenry, Ireland, Apple has acknowledged that it has no current plans to build power generators on the site, and would therefore be plugging into the Irish national grid.
The result? That according to a residents group, Apple will wind up as the largest private user of electricity in the state, consuming 8 percent of the national capacity — or more than the entire daily power usage of Dublin, which is home to over half a million people.
The hearing about Apple’s proposed 850 million euro ($960 million) data centre in Athenry, Ireland has started, with local independent statutory body An Bord Pleanála beginning to hear submissions about the proposal.
Apple’s proposed 850 million euro ($960 million) data centre in Athenry, Ireland may be one of the most environmentally-friendly projects the company has yet put its name to, but that’s not stopping locals from kicking up a fuss about it.
This month, Apple will defend its plans during a hearing to be held on Tuesday 24 May in Galway City, when Cupertino representatives will attempt to convince An Bord Pleanála, an independent, statutory body which decides on appeals from planning decisions made by local authorities in Ireland.
Apple is set to face a hearing over its proposed 850 million euro ($960 million) data centre in Athenry, Ireland — one of Apple’s biggest projects in Europe to date, which is scheduled to open in 2017.
The hearing over the proposed data center, which will help power Apple Music, the App Store, iMessages, Maps and Siri, will be with An Bord Pleanála, an independent, statutory body that decides on appeals from planning decisions made by local authorities in Ireland.
Dublin, the largest and capital city of Ireland, may finally be about to get its first Apple Store.
Apple is reportedly in talks with a developer group called the Natrium consortium to open up a flagship retail store in Dublin’s city center — possibly based on the ground floor of an iconic former department store, bought last year for €29 million ($33 million).
Apple has spoken up about the European Union investigation into its Irish tax affairs, telling a panel of E.U. investigators that it pays “every cent of tax” it owes in the country, and that it gets no advantage whatsoever compared with other companies.
Apple employees are being assaulted with offers from hackers to give them login details to Apple’s internal servers, and they’re willing to pay a king’s ransom if you’ve got the right info.
In Ireland, employees have received offers of over $20,000 for their Apple ID login, but it appears that Apple is well aware of the problem and has launched a new program to combat the problem.
Apple’s plans for a new €850 million data center in Ireland have been put on hold after nearby residents appealed the recent decision to grant Apple rights to build there.
The complaint cites increased traffic and noise due to construction, but also claims that nearby bats and badgers, protected species that live in the nearby forest, will be significantly impacted.
The planning appeals board hopes to have a decision on the objections and make a final call sometime this month.
Update: Employees are now back to work after the security alert was lifted. Only Apple’s Hollyhill and Levitt’s Quay were affected.
Apple reportedly evacuated 4,000 staffers at several of its premises in Cork, Ireland, this morning after an online bomb threat.
Employees were evacuated from Apple’s facilities in Hollyhill, the nearby Levitt’s Quay, and (possibly) the Model Farm Road site at 10 a.m. local time, with a search now being made of all premises. The Army Bomb Disposal unit has been notified and an explosive ordnance disposal team is on standby.
After having initially been promised for a Christmas deadline, it now appears that both Apple and Ireland will have to wait until February to receive the verdict of European Union regulators on whether or not Ireland has broken international tax rules by letting Apple shelter profits worth tens of billions of dollars there.
Having previously said that a verdict on Apple’s Irish tax arrangements would be announced by Christmas, a new report reveals that an announcement won’t be made until February next year after all.
The reason for the delay is additional supplementary questions sent by E.C. investigators, concerning whether or not Apple potentially underpaid on billions of euros of tax in a so-called “sweetheart” deal. The additional questions may relate to a new line of inquiry in the long-running investigation.
Having previously said that he expected to receive the European Commission’s verdict on Apple’s Irish tax arrangements by Christmas, Ireland’s Finance Minister Michael Noonan now claims that an announcement is likely to be delayed util next year.
The delay in the long-running investigation is the result of regulators asking for additional information from the Irish government, which will take several weeks to gather.
Apple is working with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to fund research toward ocean energy with a whopping €1 million, or approximately $1,072,662. The fund would commence in 2016 and donate €250,000 every year for four years.
Apple has announced plans to hire an extra 1,000 employees in Ireland — as the deadline draws closer concerning the European Union announcing their decision about whether or not Apple dodged taxes thanks to the Irish government.
Apple will add 1,000 staff to its offices in Cork by mid-2017, where it currently operates the only Apple-owned manufacturing facility in the world, building Mac computers.
When people talk about Apple’s Irish operations, it’s normally negatively, regarding questionable tax practices. But the company operates a 4,000-person factory in Cork, Ireland, that builds iMacs — and it’s the only Apple-owned manufacturing facility in the world.
The Irish Examiner recently got a peek inside the secretive Apple manufacturing plant in Cork. Check out some photos below.
Ireland will apparently announce plans to phase out its “Double Irish” tax arrangement that has allowed companies like Apple and Google to save billions, according to a Reuters report citing sources familiar with the matter.
Over the past 18 months, the country has been criticized by both the United States and Europe for tax loopholes that let companies slash their overseas tax rate to single digits. Preliminary findings by the European Commission recently slammed a “sweetheart” tax deal on the part of Ireland that allowed Apple to avoid paying taxes by building up a massive offshore cash pile of $137.7 billion in the country.
Preliminary findings by the European Commission have slammed Apple and Ireland for a so-called “sweetheart” tax deal which allowed Apple to avoid paying taxes by building up a massive offshore cash pile of $137.7bn in the country.
The deal dates back to 1991, and allowed Ireland to provide Apple with illegal state aid. Apple has had a base in the country since 1980.
In a statement, the European Commission said that “the Irish authorities confer an advantage on Apple,” and that this “advantage is obtained every year and ongoing.”
Regulators are set to break down the reason tax deals given to Apple in Ireland violate EU laws, according to people familiar with the matter.
The European Commission began formal investigations into the tax avoidance issue back in June, and plans to publish its findings as early as today — with the claim that tax deals between Apple and the Irish government could fall under the heading of illegal state aid.
While Apple has yet to make a comment on the matter, the Irish government has spoken up; describing its position as “confident” that the Apple deal represents “no breach of state-aid rules.” It claims that it has already submitted a formal response to the European Commission, in which it addresses in detail “the concerns and some misunderstandings.”
Apple believes it’s the highest taxpayer in the U.S, but the company has still been subjected to intense scrutiny because the majority of its cash isn’t located stateside, but in offshore subsidiaries scattered around the globe.
In a U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee this summer, Apple was accused of using Irish tax loopholes to avoid paying on about $44 billion in foreign profits. By basing ghost subsidiaries in Ireland, Apple has been able to not pay a considerable amount of taxes to any country. Now the Irish government is considering changing its tax code to prevent such behavior from happening in the future.
An Irish parliamentary committee has dismissed the opportunity to grill Apple and Google over their tax affairs in Ireland, despite requests for a change to the way in which it taxes large multinationals that do business in its country.
The move comes weeks after Apple and Google came under scrutiny for the way in which they use tax “loopholes” or “gimmicks” to avoid paying excessive taxes on international sales. It was revealed that Apple used an Irish subsidiary with zero employees to pay less than 0.05% tax on $78 billion over four years.
Hutchison Whampoa, owner of Three U.K., has today acquired O2 Ireland in a deal worth €850 million ($1.1 billion). Telefonica, O2’s parent company, believes the move will “create a new competitive dynamic in the Irish market,” which Three can now claim 37.5% of with 2 million active subscribers.
We’ve already brought you some of the most interesting topics that came up during Tim Cook’s interview at D11 last night, but if you’d like to watch the entire thing yourself, you can do so right now. AllThingsD has posted the entire thing — which runs for one hour and 20 minutes — online this morning, and you can watch it below.
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