Apple Tax Injustice Contributes to a Richest 1% With Twice Wealth of 6.9 billion people
Aontú leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has castigated the continuing FF/FG/Green government policy of seeking to stop Apple paying Tax in Ireland at a just rate. He stated;
“The actions of FF, FG and the Greens in fighting the payment of €13.1 billion of tax by Apple is not a victimless action. The world’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people. This trend is accelerating due to tax injustice. Ireland has been infamous on the world stage when it comes to bargain basement tax policy. It has only in the last few years been pulled kicking and screaming into accepting international tax norms”.
“The Apple Tax crisis is just one element of this tax policy, yet it individually has an astounding material financial effect on each citizen. The unpaid tax is worth €3,000 to every man, women and child in the country. At a time when there is an economic tidal wave washing over the country a citizen centric government would have used this money to help create a safety net under those in most need”.
“Ireland needs to be competitive in Foreign Direct Investment terms. But even if you take the Tax Injustice element out of this equation, we have been significantly exposed by our heavy reliance on bargain basement taxes for our economic future. The tolerance of other countries for our policies has waned and changes are already occurring that may deeply affect Ireland. To stay competitive, we need more investment to create a stronger education system and a functional transport and ICT infrastructure. We need to focus on productivity and competitiveness”.
“We need enterprise policies that encourage not only FDI but also the poor relation in all of this, the indigenous SME sector”.
