Apple's $14.6B tax bill explained

Imagine getting slapped with a bill for 14.6 billion in back taxes.
想像一下被146億美元的稅金繳費單砸在臉上。

Thats’s exactly what happend to Apple today.
這是今天實際發生在蘋果公司的事情。

But don’t feel to bad for them, we found out they only been paying 0.005 on their effective corporate tax rate.
但無需要替他們難過，我們發現他們只支付了0.005的有效企業稅。

Here’s all this all happend.
這是事發的經過。

Apple is an American company but they have offices in Ireland for quite some time 
and that’s where they have to pay taxes on there international profit .
Apple是一家美國公司，但他們在愛爾蘭設有辦事處已有相當長的一段時間，他們必須也必須在那裏為國際營收的利潤納稅。

Now most of their companies in Ireland are supposed to pay what’s called signature tax about 12.5 percent.
現在他們在愛爾蘭的大多數公司應該支付12.5％的簽名稅。

But today the European commission reveal that apple has been paying way less.
但今天歐盟委員會透露，蘋果的納稅額遠遠不到那個數。

Some people thought they were paying just about 2 percent.
有人認為他們支付了兩個百分比。

It turns out in years like in 2003 Apple was just paying 1 percent and in 2014 just 0.005 percent.
並且事實證明，像2003年蘋果公司只支付了1％的費用而2014年只支付了0.005％。

Now, all along Apple has said this is  what Ireland told us we had to pay .
蘋果公司一直表示這是愛爾蘭告知我們公司必須支付的費用。

And Ireland has always agreed they said this is how the tax structure is set up in our country.
愛爾蘭政府也支持他們，說著"這就是我們國家建立稅收的結構"。

Today the European Union said "Sorry, our laws supersede Ireland laws."
今天，歐盟表示:我們的法律高於愛爾蘭的法律。

And not only does apple owes 14.6 billion in back taxes they also going to pay interest on that .
所以如今蘋果公司不僅欠了146億美元的稅款，而且還要支付利息。

Ireland doesn’t want to collect that money because they don’t want to lose Apples’ investment and the thousands of people that Apple employed  in that country .
愛爾蘭不想收這筆錢，因為他們不想失去蘋果的投資以及讓蘋果在該國僱用的數千人失去工作。

And they don’t want to lose money from the other corporation who has flock there for those low corporate taxes.
而且他們也不想失去那些因為低廉營業稅額而湧向他們國內市場的企業

Other countried in the EU like Netherland  Luxembourg also have simular deals. 
歐洲其他國家如荷蘭盧森堡也有類似的情況。

And they don’t want to lose out on the tax money their collecting .
他們也不想要失去他們所收到的稅款。

The United States also doesn’t want to see Apple handing over all that money to the Irish government.
美國政府也不樂見蘋果將如此鉅款拱手交給愛爾蘭政府。

That’s because the United States has a policy of giving companies a tax credit every time they have to pay a foreign government a big tax like this .
這是因為美國的政策是每次企業向外國政府支付像這樣鉅額的稅金時，給予企業稅收抵免。

So this could create a huge dent in the american federal budget .
因此，這麼做可能會對美國聯邦預算產生巨大影響。

And your’ probably not surprised that Apple doesn’t want to pay that ethier.
然後，您可能不會驚訝，但蘋果公司也不願意支付。

Even though they have plenty of cash on hand to cover it .
就算他們手上有足夠的資金去支付這筆費用。

Apple came out a statement today saying.
蘋果今天釋出聲明稿指出。

The European commission has launched an effort to rewrite Apple’s history in Europe.
歐盟委員會今日的動作將徹底改變蘋果在歐洲的歷史。

Ignore Ireland’s tax laws and upend the international tax system in the process.
忽略愛爾蘭的稅法，並在此過程中顛覆國際稅收制度。

The commission case is not about how much Apple pays in taxes, it’s about which government collects the money.

這個佣金案的重點不在於蘋果公司支付與否，重點在於是由哪個政府收的稅金。

The most profound and harmful effect of this ruling will be in investment and job creation in Europe.
這項裁決最深刻和最有害的影響將是對歐洲地區的投資和就業機會。

The commissioner for compition in the EU summed up their view pretty differently.
歐盟競爭事務專員非常簡單地總結了他們的觀點。

Member states cannot give tax breaks to selected companies.
成員國不能對選定的公司給予稅收減免。

This is illegal under EU state aid rules .
根據歐盟國家援助規定，這是非法的。

Apple and Ireland both say that they appealing this decision.
Apple和愛爾蘭都表示他們對這一決定提出上訴。

And even though Ireland may end up with a lot more cash on the books then they have expected, long term many people think this could hurt Europe.
儘管愛爾蘭最終可能會在賬面上獲得許多意料之外的現金，但就長期來看人們認為這會傷害到歐洲地區發展。

Corporation could go to other countries in places like the Caribbean, the Middle East
and the far east where they pay even less corporate taxes.
公司可以去加勒比中東和遠東地區的其他國家，在那裡他們可以支付更少的公司稅。

 

Copyright Announcement: The above videos are  from the official Youtube channel of the organization. Apple's $14.6B tax bill explained https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe-4xQosMQGkIA8mT4sR98Q The videos we selected are all publicly available on the official channel, and we do not own the copyright of these videos. Our work on Chinese translation for this film is free for the 1.2 billion audiences in Mandarin Chinese around the world to watch and learn SDGs and SROI advertising campaigns.