Privacy issues: Apple, Google team up to make software to slow down spread of coronavirus

Software developed by two of the world's biggest tech giants will allow users to log other phones they have been physically close to.

Read more at:
https://www.dw.com/en/apple-google-team-up-to-make-software-to-slow-down-spread-of-coronavirus/a-53092203

USA: Dow Jones Today: Stocks Drop On China Turmoil; Apple Algorithm Probed - by A.R. Elliot

Stocks came off their early lows in Monday's Veterans Day trading session, as political unrest in Hong Kong upended confidence across global markets. A slow start to a big earnings week left analyst actions and company news driving early trade. Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Home Depot (HD) lagged on the Dow Jones today, following downgrades. Apple (APPL) traded lower as New York regulators announced a company probe.

Read more at: Dow Jones Today: Stocks Drop On China Turmoil; Apple Algorithm Probed | Investor's Business Daily

France: French finance minister to tax digital giants including Facebook and Apple despite US protests

France dismisses US opposition to tax on tech giants French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday that France would stick to plans for a tax on digital giants such as Facebook and Apple, despite opposition from Washington.

 

Read more at:  

http://www.france24.com/en/20190404-pompeo-urges-france-drop-plans-tax-tech-giants

USA: Dow Jones tanks as Apple stocks tumble

Read more at:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-market-set-to-tumble-as-apple-signals-china-pain-2019-01-03

Social Media: Apple jams Facebook's web tracking tools

I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it: Apple jams Facebook's web-tracking tools -

For the complete report go to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44360273

Global Corporate Takeover: 10 biggest corporations make more money than most countries in the world combined

 69 of top 100 economic entities are corporations not countries

Walmart, Apple, Shell richer than Russia, Belgium, Sweden, and the Netherlands

British government has been told: stop supporting your corporations, support your people

Corporations have increased their wealth vis-à-vis countries according to new figures released by Global Justice Now.

The campaign group found that 69 of the world’s top economic entities are corporations rather than countries in 2015*. They also discovered that the world’s top 10 corporations – a list that includes Walmart, Shell and Apple – have a combined revenue of more than the 180 ‘poorest’ countries combined in the list which include Ireland, Indonesia, Israel, Colombia, Greece, South Africa, Iraq and Vietnam.  

The figures are worse than last year, when 63 of the top economic entities were corporations. When looking at the top 200 economic entities, the figures are even more extreme, with 153 being corporations.

Global Justice Now released the figures in order to increase pressure on the British government ahead of a UN working group, led by Ecuador, established to draw up a binding treaty to ensure transnational corporations abide by the full range of human rights responsibilities. Campaigners are calling for the treaty to be legally enforceable at a national and global level. Britain doesn’t support the process, and has repeatedly vetoed and opposed such proposal in the past.  

Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said:

“The vast wealth and power of corporations is at the heart of so many of the world’s problems – like inequality and climate change. The drive for short-term profits today seems to trump basic human rights for millions of people on the planet. These figures show the problem is getting worse.

“The UK government has facilitated this rise in corporate power – through tax structures, trade deals and even aid programmes that help big business. Their wholehearted support for the US-EU trade deal TTIP, is just the latest example of government help to big business. Disgracefully it also routinely opposes the call of developing countries to hold corporations to account for their human rights impacts at the UN. That’s why today we’re joining campaigns from across the world to tell the British government to stop blocking this international demand for justice.”

Read more: 10 biggest corporations make more money than most countries in the world combined | Global Justice Now

TAX EVASION: US backing Apple's TAX Evasion Scheme's

Apple's massive EU tax bill could irk the US http://dw.com/p/1JsBy

EU Taxation Policies: US warns EU over Apple’s tax case

Is Apple cutting corners when paying taxes?

The US government has threatened the European Commission (EC) with retaliation if the body decides to proceed with its plan to demand millions of dollars in unpaid taxes from technology giant Apple.

The US Treasury Department issued a rare warning on Wednesday, August 24, accusing the Brussels-based body of becoming a “supranational tax authority” that poses a threat to international agreements concerning tax reform.

“The US Treasury Department continues to consider potential responses should the Commission continue its present course,” the Treasury said in its strongest language to date.

“A strongly preferred and mutually beneficial outcome would be a return to the system and practice of international tax cooperation that has long fostered cross-border investment between the United States and EU member states,” the warning added.

The European Union (EU) has been investigating a series of tax deals between Apple and Ireland which allow the iPhone maker to pay little or no tax on income earned across Europe.

The EC is expected to rule on the case next month. This is the biggest corporate tax avoidance investigation ever undertaken by the commission.

The EC is the executive body of the EU, responsible for implementing decisions, proposing legislation, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the bloc.

According to investment bank JP Morgan, if Apple is forced to retroactively pay the Irish corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent on its pre-tax profits, the company might need to cash out as much as $19 billion.

A 2013 report by US Senate confirmed that Apple has paid little to no taxes on at least $74 billion of the profit it earned by exploiting Irish and American tax laws.

Tim Cook, who became Apple’s CEO after the death of its founder Steve Jobs five years ago, has denounced the case as “political crap.”

“There is no truth behind it,” he said. “Apple pays every tax dollar we owe.”

The EU estimates that tax avoidance by multinational corporations costs member states anywhere between $50 million to $78 billion a year in lost taxes.

In addition to Apple, other American companies like Amazon and Starbucks are also suspected of tax evasion.

Note EU-Digest: Hopefully the EU Commission does not cave-in for these US misguided threats and intimidations and tells the US Treasury Department where to shove this warning, which is protective of US corporate tax evaders.   

Read more: PressTV-US warns EU over Apple’s tax case

Corporate Tax Evadors: US 'hits out at EU tax probes'

The United States has attacked high-profile EU tax probes into American companies as unfair and encroaching on the US government's right to tax them, the Financial Times reported Saturday.

The European Commission has cracked down hard on companies, including US icons such as Apple, Starbucks and Amazon, who worked out arrangements with EU member states allowing them to slash their tax bills.

EU Competition Commissioner Magrethe Vestager has made a point of testing these "tax rulings," which are legal in themselves, to see if they breach strict bloc competition rules by giving some companies an advantage over their rivals.

The FT said Robert Stack, a US Treasury official, met EU competition officials in Brussels on Friday to express Washington's concerns.

"We are concerned that the EU Commission appears to be disproportionately targeting US companies," Stack was quoted as saying.

Stack's visit came just one day after the Commission launched plans to stamp out tax avoidance by multi-national corporations.

"The days are numbered for companies that aggressively reduce their tax bills," EU Economics Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said.

The key proposal is that a company should report its profit country by country, rather than as now be allowed to shift earnings around into lower tax jurisdictions.

The plans were unveiled amid a storm of protest at a British government agreement for Internet giant Google to pay £130 million ($185 million, 170 million euros) in back taxes.

Critics denounced the deal as ridiculously low given Google's size and earnings but the company insisted the settlement was fair and that it complied fully with the tax laws in the countries where it operates.

Italy is meanwhile demanding Google pay some 200 million euros in back taxes and France reportedly wants 500 million euros after an investigation that included raids by police.

Google and Apple have complained they are being unfairly targeted by the European authorities.

Commission officials were not immediately available for comment on the report but Brussels has rejected charges of an anti-US bias in the past.

 Read more: Flash - US 'hits out at EU tax probes' - France 24

Multi-Nationals: Are multinationals starting to lose the tax battle?- by Katy Barnato

The battle between the world's leading multinationals and national governments looking for tax revenue has heated up over the past week following the row surrounding Google's bill in the U.K. and a pan-European push to combat corporate tax avoidance.

The new European Union proposals announced Thursday include legally binding measures to block the most common methods used by companies to avoid paying tax and help circulate tax information on multinationals among countries. They come at a time when U.S. multinationals, including Apple, Amazon, Starbucks and Google, are facing a renewed storm of criticism for their tax practices in Europe.

"Billions of tax euros are lost every year to tax avoidance — money that could be used for public services like schools and hospitals or to boost jobs and growth. Europeans and businesses that play fair end up paying higher taxes as a result. This is unacceptable and we are acting to tackle it," Pierre Moscovici, a European Commissioner and former French finance minister, said in a written statement on the new measures on Thursday.

Read more: Are multinationals starting to lose the tax battle?

Cellular Phones: Apple says 30% of new iPhone buyers switched from Android

Last September, Apple CEO Tim Cook made a bold prediction.

After unveiling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to a packed theater of journalists in San Francisco, Cook told The Wall Street Journal that he expected the larger-screened phones to usher in “the mother of all upgrades.”
He turned out to be right.

Fast forward a little over a year later, and Apple just reported 48 million iPhones sold during its fourth fiscal quarter, beating its previous record for the same quarter last year.
In a new interview with the Journal, Cook attributed the iPhone's continued growth to a record number of Android defectors.

Owners of phones running Google's operating system switching to the iPhone isn't a new phenomenon — Apple saw a record number of switchers last quarter too. But for the first time, Cook revealed that 30% of new iPhone buyers came from Android.

Read more: Apple says 30% of new iPhone buyers switched from Android