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Apple sues French tax activists who occupied Paris store

Apple has filed a lawsuit against the Attac activist group after about 100 of its supporters occupied the tech giant's flagship store in Paris last month, protesting alleged "wide-scale tax evasion" by the firm.

Published: 4 January 2018 17:14 CET
Apple sues French tax activists who occupied Paris store
Photo: AFP
An Apple spokesman told AFP on Thursday that while it respected the group's right to expression, its recent actions had “put the security of our customers and employees at risk.”
   
It is seeking 3,000 euros ($3,600) from Attac, or the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and Aid to Citizens, and a court order barring the group from staging further protests in its stores, for which they would face a penalty of 150,000 euros.
   
   
They blocked the store for several hours on a busy pre-Christmas Saturday, leaving only after they were assured of a meeting with management.
 
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Activists occupy Paris Apple store over EU tax disputePhoto: AFP 

The company said it had met with representatives on December 18 and asked them to refrain from further actions because of security concerns.
   
“Even if we don't share their opinion, we fully recognise their right to express it,” the Apple spokesman said.
   
But Dominique Plihon, a spokesman for Attac France, said the lawsuit was “an attempt to gag Attac and prevent us from holding new citizen actions to condemn tax evasion by multinationals”.
   
He added that Apple had accused Attac of “vandalism”, though he said the group's actions “are symbolic, nonviolent, staged openly and with no material damage”.
   
Attac also protested against the company on the day Apple released its iPhone X globally in November, dumping a load of freshly picked apples as demonstrators carried signs saying “Apple, pay your taxes” in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence.
   
The same day, its activists gathered in front of the Opera store with a fake birthday cake, wishing “happy birthday to the iPhone” but “a bad birthday to tax evasion” as part of its #ApplePayYourTaxes campaign.
   
In August 2016, European authorities estimated that Apple owed $14.5 billion in back taxes after it negotiated highly favourable tax arrangements with the Irish government.
   
Revelations in November from the “Paradise Papers” shed light on Apple's tax avoidance strategy, which shifted tens of billion of dollars in profits from one tax haven to another.
   
A trove of documents released by the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) suggested Apple transferred funds to the island of Jersey, which typically does not tax corporate income and is largely exempt from EU tax regulations.
   
Apple has said it follows the law in each country it operates.
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Beskæftigelsesfradraget: What is Denmark’s employment allowance?

Denmark's government may soon announce changes to its tax reform plans, which will give all wage earners a bigger employment allowance. What is this and how will it affect foreigners' earnings?

Published: 30 October 2023 15:21 CET
Beskæftigelsesfradraget: What is Denmark's employment allowance?

What is the employment allowance? 

The Beskæftigelsesfradraget (from beskæftigelse, meaning employment, and fradrag, meaning rebate) was brought in by the centre-right Liberal Party back in 2004, the idea being that it would incentivise people to get off welfare and into a job.

Everyone whose employer pays Denmark’s 8 percent AM-bidrag, or arbejdsmarkedsbidrag, automatically receives beskæftigelsesfradraget. Unlike with some of Denmark’s tax rebates, there is no need to apply. The Danish Tax Agency simply exempts the first portion of your earnings from income taxes. 

In 2022, beskæftigelsesfradraget was set at 10.65 percent of income with a maximum rebate of 44,800 kroner. 

How did the government agree to change the employment allowance in its coalition deal? 

In Responsibility for Denmark, the coalition agreement between the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Moderate Party, the new government said it would set aside 5 billion kroner for tax reforms.

Of this, 4 billion kroner was earmarked for increasing the employment allowance, with a further 0.3 billion going towards increasing an additional employment allowance for single parents.

According to the public broadcaster DR, the expectation was that this would increase the standard employment  allowance to 12.75 percent up to a maximum rebate of 53,600 kroner. 

How might this be further increased, according to Børsen? 

According to a report in the Børsen newspaper, the government now plans to set aside a further 1.75 billion kroner for tax reforms, of which nearly half — about 800 million kroner — will go towards a further increase to the employment allowance. 

The Danish Chamber of Commerce earlier this month released an analysis in which it argued that by raising removing all limits on the rebate for single parents and raising the maximum rebate for everone else by 20,300 kroner, the government could increase the labour supply by 4,850 people, more than double the 1,500 envisaged in the government agreement. 

According to the Børsen, the government estimates that its new extended allowance will increase the labour supply by 5,150 people.  

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