Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Tim Cook Visits Europe to Meet EU Antitrust Chief, Pope Francis and Italian Developers
Apple CEO Tim Cook traveled to Europe this week to meet with European Commission antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in Brussels on Thursday, before heading to Rome on Friday to meet Pope Francis and Italian developers.
Cook first met with Vestager to lobby against an European tax investigation that could force the iPhone and iPad maker to pay more than $8 billion in back taxes on overseas earnings, according to Bloomberg.
European Commission headquarters in Brussels (Image: Hungary Today)
Apple is accused of operating multiple subsidiaries in Ireland to avoid paying higher taxes outside the United States, where it earns just under 60% of its revenue. Apple books its taxes in Ireland using low operating costs, allowing it to pay a foreign tax rate of only 1.8%, according to the report.
If the European Commission finds wrongdoing with Apple’s corporate arrangement in Ireland, the company's $64.1 billion in profit generated from 2004 to 2012 could be subject to a higher 12.5% corporate tax rate -- just over $8 billion in back taxes.
A decision in the probe could be made by March, but may take longer due to additional information requested by European regulators. Apple continues to deny any wrongdoing, and vows to take the European Commission to court over any negative verdict.
Meanwhile, the agenda of Cook's meeting with Pope Francis remains private. The 15-minute discussion was held at 11:30 a.m. local time.
Pope Francis is known to incorporate technology into his position and takes to Twitter fairly regularly to share messages, and his old iPad was auctioned for $30,500 last year.
On Thursday, Cook tweeted about Apple's newly announced iOS development center in Italy, and said the company has created over 1.4 million jobs across Europe.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Cook first met with Vestager to lobby against an European tax investigation that could force the iPhone and iPad maker to pay more than $8 billion in back taxes on overseas earnings, according to Bloomberg.
Apple is accused of operating multiple subsidiaries in Ireland to avoid paying higher taxes outside the United States, where it earns just under 60% of its revenue. Apple books its taxes in Ireland using low operating costs, allowing it to pay a foreign tax rate of only 1.8%, according to the report.
If the European Commission finds wrongdoing with Apple’s corporate arrangement in Ireland, the company's $64.1 billion in profit generated from 2004 to 2012 could be subject to a higher 12.5% corporate tax rate -- just over $8 billion in back taxes.
A decision in the probe could be made by March, but may take longer due to additional information requested by European regulators. Apple continues to deny any wrongdoing, and vows to take the European Commission to court over any negative verdict.
Meanwhile, the agenda of Cook's meeting with Pope Francis remains private. The 15-minute discussion was held at 11:30 a.m. local time.
Pope Francis is known to incorporate technology into his position and takes to Twitter fairly regularly to share messages, and his old iPad was auctioned for $30,500 last year.
On Thursday, Cook tweeted about Apple's newly announced iOS development center in Italy, and said the company has created over 1.4 million jobs across Europe.
Apple has created over 1.4m jobs across Europe 🇪🇺 and we're announcing a center for aspiring iOS developers in Italy https://t.co/v9RLYX6u6u
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) January 21, 2016Great to meet talented Italian developers today with @matteorenzi in Rome pic.twitter.com/2DcRPMYNHD
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) January 22, 2016Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
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46 months ago
The Pope? Seriously, why?!
Because he's the head of a state, and they probably discussed charity, global warming and other stuff.
46 months ago
Must be something American. I just don't get it.
Is this Vatican 2.0? Does the Pope own a white iMac? Is this why Apple made earbuds white? Is there a vote-a-Pope app and does it smoke? Are they all lizards? Does Dan Brown know? Questions, questions...
Vatican 2.0 came out in 1962. Maybe Tim offered for Apple to Beta test Vatican 3.0?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Vatican_Council
46 months ago
Though not in total alignment, they both have similar human rights and environmental views. It's a 15 minute courtesy. He received Eric Schmidt earlier.
THE Eric Schmidt? The guy that killed Sun, and Novell? Wow... He has a lot to confess...
46 months ago
Vatican 2.0 came out in 1962. Maybe Tim offered for Apple to Beta test Vatican 3.0?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Vatican_Council
Vatican 2.11.3.8?
46 months ago
Did Tim take his private jet over there to discuss global warming?
We do have things such as Go To Meeting these days.
We do have things such as Go To Meeting these days.
46 months ago
Wouldn't it make more sense to meet the Antichrist Chief and the Pope, to hear both sides of the story?
[ Read All Comments ]
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