Not my circus, not my monkeys is not good enough- a thread for those who actually want answers

[Bearbehind]

I was going to give this up as a bad job but given the post on the last Leave thread that's nearly full saying that 'any woman with half a brain voted to leave' I felt the discussion needs to go on.

[Mistigri]

No duty on Apple products from outside the EU to inside, so why would they not locate in UK - just as good as any other European country.

Weird comment, unless Apple products are all physically imported to Ireland right now before being shipped to their final destination.

You surely wouldn't import Apple products into the UK from China, passing through one set of customs procedures, then reexport to EU markets, necessitating a second customs procedure (post brexit).

It seems likely that if Apple were to relocate to a post brexit UK that EU countries would have a close look at their tax codes to prevent EU sales made through local sales offices from being booked in the UK.

[caroldecker]

Misti
If they could do so they already would have. Italy has already tried and has a claim in process.
Apple Ireland does not just route EU sales through the Irish company, but many others. Apple will pay tax in each country is has a presence in, so there will be Apple tax paid in the UK. the argument is how is profit allocated to each territory.
Apple argue that they make a lot of profit from their IP, which is owned by whichever company it chooses. This allows it to book very low profits in the countries it makes sales and make a lot of profit in ow tax countries. This is all perfectly legal and internationally agreed in the OECD transfer pricing guidelines.
The UK has a low rate of corporate tax (10%) for some patents held, so Apple may be able to benefit from this.
NB EU countries cannot make different corporation tax rules for multi-nationals inside and outside the EU.