Following our report claiming that Apple Watch will launch in U.S. carrier stores later this month, Apple has now updated its regional websites to reveal that the device’s availability will soon be further expanded. Apple this morning updated its Austria, Denmark, and Ireland websites to reveal that Apple Watch will be available on September 25th.
Irish Examiner got an inside look at Apple’s EU headquarters in Cork along with some interviews with employees there. The campus holds around 4,000 Apple employees that the report points out span across support services, distribution, mapping and manufacturing.
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Sprint today announced that it’s expanding its free data roaming offer to a number of new countries, bringing its new total up to 22 locations around the globe.
New countries added today include: Colombia, Denmark, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Paraguay and Sweden.
Those add to the full list of 22 supported countries where Sprint customers can take advantage of the International Value Roaming feature, which allows customers to use data for free when traveling to supported countries abroad.
The full list includes: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Russia, Sweden, South Korea, Spain and United Kingdom.
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-irish-tax-changes-may-cost-us-groups-billions-2014-10">Apple’s European HQ in Cork, Ireland</a>
Following its announcement of record Q2 earnings, Apple published its quarterly 10-Q report, providing more in-depth details about finances. Notably, the company warns of the possibility of “material” back taxes due to the company’s well-documented favorable tax arrangements with Ireland.
On June 11, 2014, the European Commission issued an opening decision initiating a formal investigation against Ireland for alleged state aid to the Company. The opening decision concerns the allocation of profits for taxation purposes of the Irish branches of two subsidiaries of the Company. The Company believes the European Commission’s assertions are without merit. If the European Commission were to conclude against Ireland, the European Commission could require Ireland to recover from the Company past taxes covering a period of up to 10 years reflective of the disallowed state aid. While such amount could be material, as of March 28, 2015 the Company is unable to estimate the impact.
Apple will need to pay the fines if the European Commission, which is akin to the U.S.’s SEC, rules that Ireland granted Apple special privileges for reduced taxes. As the European Commission has not made any formal rulings on the fine, Apple says it could not estimate the impact. However, the Financial Times pegs the potential payments at $2.5 billion based on Apple’s current rate of profits.
Apple has announced that it will be spending €1.7B ($1.92B) on two new European data centers, each of which will be among the largest in the world at 166,000 square metres (1.8M square feet)–three times larger than the company’s North Carolina facility.
One will be in Ireland, the other in Denmark, with each set to begin operations in 2017. Apple says that the facilities will provide online services across Europe, including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Apple Maps and Siri.
We are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date.”
As with all of Apple’s data centers around the world, the new centres will be powered entirely by clean, renewable energy …
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Apple has notified Apple Maps Connect for Small Businesses users that the service has expanded beyond the United States into the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Singapore. As we detailed in October of last year, Apple Maps Connect is a web-based tool for businesses to either add or edit their listings to the Apple Maps database. The site is also used to bolster Apple’s indoor mapping data for future iOS Maps features. Thanks, Matt!
Two days after the Financial Times reported that the European Commission was about to come down hard on Apple’s alleged deal with the Irish government to reduce its tax liabilities, Apple has made a statement to Business Insider claiming that it has received “no selective treatment.”
Apple is proud of its long history in Ireland and the 4,000 people we employ in Cork. They serve our customers through manufacturing, tech support and other important functions. Our success in Europe and around the world is the result of hard work and innovation by our employees, not any special arrangements with the government. Apple has received no selective treatment from Irish officials over the years. We’re subject to the same tax laws as the countless other companies who do business in Ireland.
Since the iPhone launched in 2007, our tax payments in Ireland and around the world have increased tenfold. To continue that growth and the benefits it brings to the communities where we work and live, we believe comprehensive corporate tax reform is badly needed …
It looks like this week’s Apple “xxx-gate” is a big one with the Financial Times reporting that the European Commision is about to come down hard on Apple for its long held tax avoidance strategies in Ireland.
Typically the EU has used its state aid powers to address broader competition issues. But in the past year Brussels has attempted to target the tax affairs of companies such as Apple, Starbucks and Amazon. It is a novel application of the law with far-reaching implications, not just for the companies, or EU countries, but for EU-US relations in general.
This week the European Commission will publish the first findings in the Apple case. The details – including evidence from bygone tax negotiations – are likely to be explosive.
The US is no happier with Apple’s use of specially created Irish tax loopholes which allow it to avoid paying taxes it would otherwise be due. Apple CEO Tim Cook and other execs faced Senate Subcommittee questioning in May in which focused on Apple’s tax avoidance schemes.
Did Apple apply pressure to Irish authorities in 1991 and again in 2007 when negotiating tax deals and if so were these illegal competitive measures that gave Apple advantages over competitors? Luca Maestri, Apple’s finance chief, of course denies any wrongdoing…
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Sony’s Album of the Day app for iPhone and iPod Touch, which provides a daily discount of up to 70 percent on albums by popular artists, has gone international. Originally launched in Germany in March, it is now available in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
Every 24 hours, Album of the Day offers you one album from the artists you know and love at a special limited time promotional price. All deals live on your iPhone and are purchased safely through iTunes and saved to your iTunes library.
If you allow push notifications, you’ll receive a notification of each day’s deal, which is available for just 24 hours. You can download the free app from iTunes.
(via TNW)
Apple is today touting a lot of new stats regarding Apple’s contribution to European economies. The company has done similar things for the United States, in the past. For Europe, Apple claims to have created or supported 629,000 jobs across Europe, with over 500,000 of those representing the ‘app economy’. Apple says this number is made up of employees whose jobs can be directly attributed to the App Store. Out of $20 billion in worldwide developer earnings, $6.5 billion has gone to European developers.
In 2014, Apple estimates the ‘app economy’ will add $86 billion to worldwide GDP this year. Aside from the App Store, Apple employees 16,000 Europeans directly and indirectly supports a total of 132,000 jobs elsewhere. The company has also calculated that 116,000 European jobs have been created at other companies as a result of Apple’s growth.
Apple is about to roll out its Volume Purchase Program, which allows business and education customers to purchase and distribute iOS apps in bulk for deployed devices, into 16 new countries. Apple’s website for both the Volume Purchase Program for Business and for Education have been updated to announce the expansion and now list the following countries as coming soon to the program:
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Following a report yesterday that the European Commission was about to launch a formal investigation into Apple’s tax practices in Ireland, the EU has now officially announced the investigation at a press conference. Bloomberg reports that the investigation will include not just Apple, but also Starbucks and Fiat Finance & Trade SA and will look at “whether the tax deals in Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are illegal state aid.”
“Special secret deals should be outlawed across the EU,” Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, said in an e-mailed statement. “All tax breaks and reliefs should be openly available for qualifying businesses.”
“We need to fight against aggressive tax planning,” Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s competition commissioner, said at a press conference in Brussels. He said it’s “still too soon to anticipate” possible recovery if the EU finds the tax rulings to be illegal.
Apple responded with a statement to Bloomberg following the news claiming that it “pays every euro of every tax that we owe” and that it “received no selective treatment from Irish officials.” Apple’s full statement is below:
“Apple pays every euro of every tax that we owe,” the company said in an e-mailed statement. “We have received no selective treatment from Irish officials. Apple is subject to the same tax laws as scores of other international companies doing business in Ireland.”
Apple last year faced a U.S. Senate hearing on its offshore tax practices in which it denied taking advantage of any tax loopholes in Ireland. The SEC also closed its own investigation without establishing any wrong-doing in October of last year.
If Congress delivers on a proposed tax holiday, Apple could soon join a slew of American companies with large dollar amounts of offshore money eager to repatriate their earnings without being subject to the current corporate tax rate. News of the tax holiday being discussed comes via a report from Reuters:
Top Senate Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday said they were considering offering American companies a one-time tax break if they repatriate profits stashed abroad.
The senators anticipate the proposal would generate a windfall in revenue that would be used to fund federal transportation projects.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters in the Capitol that Republicans had discussed a corporate tax repatriation “holiday” idea and “it enjoys a good deal of support in our conference.”
In the past, Apple has made no secret that it does not favor the current corporate income tax rate. With current policy, Apple’s repatriated funds would be subject to the 35% corporate income tax meaning it could really only keep 65% of its earnings…
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According to a report from Ireland’s RTE.ie, the European Commission has decided to officially launch a formal investigation into Apple’s tax practices in the country (via The Loop). An announcement is expected by EU officials tomorrow:
The European Commission is to open a formal investigation into Apple’s tax arrangements with Ireland… An announcement is expected to be made by Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia tomorrow… EU state aid rules are designed to prevent unfair practices, although it is not clear that countries offering favourable tax terms to companies or industries would violate such rules.
Apple last year faced U.S. Senate hearing on its offshore tax practices in which it denied taking advantage of any tax gimmicks or loopholes in Ireland. The EU shortly after launched an investigation into tax agreements with multinational companies in Ireland and number of other EU countries, while government officials in Ireland denied claims of a special 2% tax deal with Apple.
Later, in October of last year, the SEC in the U.S. ultimately closed its own investigation without establishing any wrong-doing on Apple’s part.
The Forecast team today released their iOS 7 update for Dark Sky ($3.99), the ‘down-to-the-minute’ weather app. The update strips back the bevels and gloss to fit the iOS 7 aesthetic. The new design puts the most important information — the current weather conditions — front and center. A graph plot of upcoming precipitation is also available at a glance on the main page of the app.
Blurring has also been used to great effect, with the forecast information superimposed on a blurred view of the global radar maps. These maps are beautifully rendered; the radar patterns smoothly transition over time. In addition to the radically new design, version 4 also brings much forecasts that span longer into the future. The next 24 hours is prioritised, but 7-day outlooks are available with a swipe. The day-by-day breakdowns offer a lot of information, more so than most weather reports will provide.
Completely rewritten from scratch, it sets aside the limitations of the web to become the weather app we’ve always wanted — and always wanted to build. It’s the culmination of over two years of work in figuring out how to display and organize weather data the right way. And it’s a full featured weather app — something we swore we’d never do — but it still remains true to its original focus on what’s happening right now, where you’re standing.
The developers say the app is a complete rewrite, which makes the fact they are not charging for the update impressive. For new customers, Dark Sky is available for $3.99 on the App Store. Note that Dark Sky coverage currently encompasses the United States, the UK and Ireland. The developers have said that they are actively working on adding data for more regions.
Unlike the U.S. and EU, Irish authorities won’t be forcing representatives from Apple and Google to answer questions on their tax practices after a motion to do so was voted down this week by the Irish parliamentary committee. The news, first reported by TheRegister, follows Apple CEO Tim Cook’s testimony before a U.S. Senate hearing in May and Ireland’s denial of “a special two-percent rate” at the center of controversy surrounding Apple’s over shore tax practices:
The subcommittee is already scheduled to hear from the OECD, the Department of Finance, tax authority the Revenue Commissioner and academics, but Doherty wanted the option to also call representatives from firms like Google and Apple, which have already been quizzed in Blighty and the US.
“Given the fact that multinational corporations have appeared at committees in Britain and the United States to give evidence about their tax affairs in Ireland, it is ridiculous that politicians here in Ireland would vote down a proposal for them to do the same here,” he said in a statement after the vote went against him.“If the committee is to do its job properly it is important that it is free to invite the relevant people and companies to provide all the relevant information.”
In late May, the EU Tax Commissioner called for an end to tax havens following Apple’s testimony before the U.S. Senate, while the U.K. and other EU member states have also questioned Apple and other large multinationals on their tax practies. Irish authorities planned to investigate the issue as well, but now it appears Apple and other companies won’t be dragged into the process.
Apple’s Irish tax havens and its agreement with the country to pay corporation tax of approximately 2% on earnings have been a big focus of controversy surrounding the U.S. Senate’s investigation into the offshore tax practices of Apple and many other large technology multinationals. Today, Bloomberg reports that EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta has addressed concerns by calling for an end to “specific incentives to foreign companies or wealthy individuals” attempting to avoid taxation. It could possibly lead to a broader crackdown of the practice in EU nations criticized for their tax policies including Ireland, Luxembourg, Austria, and the Netherlands.
“Some member states have fairly loose or relatively liberal double-taxation agreements with third countries,” Semeta said in a Brussels speech today to the Friends of Europe group. “These very loose agreements actually allow aggressive tax planners to shift their profits through EU member states to third countries and to avoid taxation in general.”
Update: Live coverage of the Senate hearing on Apple’s offshore tax practices is above.
As things heat up in the row on alleged tax avoidance by Apple, Ireland has denied a claim made by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that it had agreed a special deal with the company to allow it to pay corporation tax of just 2% on its Irish earnings.
The denial was made to Yahoo! Finance reporter Conor Humphries:
According to the congressional report, Ireland had also agreed a special 2 percent rate for Apple’s Irish taxable profits instead of the normal 12.5 percent, but a spokesman for Ireland’s finance department, when asked how and why this had come about, said: “Ireland’s tax system is statute based, so there is no possibility of individual special tax rate deals for companies.”
This appears to flatly contradict a statement by the Senate subcommittee that accused Apple of …
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[tweet https://twitter.com/jonveal/status/284257950065897472]
Several 9to5Mac readers, most of which are located in the United Kingdom, reported that movies and TV shows have oddly disappeared from the Apple TV menu. A thread on Apple’s Support forums confirmed many users are now experiencing the issue.
While the problem originally appeared to only affect users located in the U.K., more reports on Twitter, as highlighted in the selection of tweets below, from New York, France, Ireland, and Australia further confirmed missing icons. One user on Apple support forums claimed Apple informed him the icons would be restored soon and that the stores continue to work in the U.S. and Luxembourg:
Last we heard, Apple was being threatened with closure of its Italian operations if it did not make necessary changes to its warranty policies following an investigation by the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato. The authorities had previously fined Apple $1.2 million, claiming the company failed to inform consumers about a two-year warranty mandatory by EU law. Now it appears Apple has officially taken its AppleCare Protection Plan products off the shelves in Italy with only online versions of the product still available to Italian customers.
setteB.IT shared the image above showing what is apparently an email from Apple Distribution International in Ireland to Apple resellers in Italy. Apple informed resellers that it would stop selling all AppleCare Protection Plans in Italian Apple Stores as well as through authorized resellers. From the email, it also appeared Apple will no longer offer AppleCare-related services over the phone in the country.
setteB.IT also noted Apple has updated the terms for AppleCare on its Italian website. Rather than a “1 year warranty”, the website now reads “AppleCare plans benefits are added to the 2 year warranty of the seller, required by Italian regulators to protect the consumers.”
A full translation of the email is below:
Apple made official plans to hire additional employees at its European headquarters. Reuters reported that the current workforce of 2,800 would expand by up to 500 over the next 18 months at the building located in Cork, Ireland. According to a report from local RTE News Ireland, revenues in the markets handled by Cork HQ grew 55 percent year-on-year for October/December:
Apple’s Senior Director for Corporate Communications Alan Hely said the company plans to increase its workforce in the city to 3,300 over the next 18 months… Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton and senior officials in IDA Ireland have been involved in meetings on the project in Ireland and with Apple management in the US over several months.