Apple has been ordered to pay Ireland €13bn (£11bn; $14bn) in unpaid taxes by Europe’s top court, putting an end to an eight-year row.
The European Commission accused Ireland of giving Apple illegal tax advantages in 2016, but Ireland has consistently argued against the need for the tax to be paid.
The Irish government said it would respect the ruling.
Apple said it was disappointed with the decision and accused the European Commission of “trying to retroactively change the rules”.
A separate European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on Tuesday also brought a long-running case with Google to a close, with the company ordered to pay a €2.4bn (£2bn) fine for market dominance abuse.
definitionally, the middle class literally cannot be in the bottom 10%. I’d really suggest you learn about those “handouts” you mention and look into how much they are, what the conditions for receiving it are, how hard they are to get, etc. and consider whether you’d be able to live on them.
Well I spent all of my money on a house and my neighbour got handed it for free. I cant afford to go on holiday every year while they are out every weekend and off on a trip at least once a year. Popped out a few kids and declared the partner left despite living there so they get a fat support cheque and extra for being abandoned.
I have looked into these things and I am happy to not be included in that demographic because Inwould rather have a purpose and pride in what I do and how I get to where I am going but to say that those supports are difficult to get and very little to live on shows you are the uninformed one. Without expenses my neighbour has 600 euro a week, she saved thousands during the pandemic. Bought a nice new car for herself, while I am here esrning above average with a lesser lifestyle.
I am not saying to not eat the rich, aim upwards but I am sick of supporting lazy cunts.
If you’re struggling to make ends meet, you’re not middle class. You’re the exact same class as your neighbour. If you want to improve your conditions then you need to learn some solidarity instead of blaming them for your problems. They’re not the ones taking advantage. It’s the fucking rich and powerful that are lazy, do zero valuable work, and leech off the rest of society. Working class people scamming the tax system is a good thing, really - all those taxes would otherwise go to other rich twats anyways, so I’d much rather it went to your neighbour.
Im in full time employment and own my own house, both of us are above average earners. We are not the same class as dole families.
if you fully own your own home and your household has two people fully employed how in the hell does someone with €1600 a month have a living standard remotely close to yours? none of what you’re saying is adding up at all
Because I have 3k a month expenditure for childcare and a mortgage that these neighbours dont bevause they getexcessive support.
Maybe things arent adding up because you dont know everything and some peoplr have different circumstances, or maybe even a different country, that dont align with what you have decided is how things are.
If you have a mortgage, you don’t fully own your house.
The reality is that you’re in the exact same class as your neighbour but you believe all the propaganda you’ve been fed about taking benefits making you somehow less of a person. You’re probably not in the bottom 10%, though, so there are definitely people struggling more than you.
If you have £3k a month child care then unless both of you are making over 3k a month salary then possibly you should consider one of you leaving their job and becoming a stay at home parent.
Look, I get it. Things are tough, and you work hard and you deserve better. What I’m trying to tell you is that you’re hating on the wrong people. Don’t blame your neighbour, blame your boss.
I am well aware of this line of thinking and generally do support social safety nets and shit like it but I disagree that I am in the same class as those who refuse to meaningfully take part in society and I am only at a surface level in the same position due to my governments inability to discourage this behaviour and their insistence on providing too much.
One of the families near me, two unemployed parents 8 kids are after being moved out of their free 4 bed house and into a larger one to accommodate their inability to family plan and as a consequence of their willful unemployment and inability to look after their kids.
As for the child care, thatnis combined with the mortgage for the 3k figure but we also should not have to put our careers on hold because child care is prohibitively expensive for us while others are paid to mind their own kids.
It’s quite sad that you consider that the only way to “take part in society” is to have a job. I’m disabled and though I do work I might not be able to do so in the future, and you’re essentially saying that if that happens I’ll no longer have any sort of value. I really think that’s some brainwashing, you can only see your own value through your labour. It’s like some kind of slave morality.
I think it’s far more important to protect the welfare of children who had no choice in whether they were born or not, than it is to “punish” poor people for making bad choices. What would you have as the alternative?
You keep having this whole “having your cake and eating it too” argument with yourself. You are simultaneously hard-done-by because you can’t go on a holiday every year, but also you’re not because you have a mortgage and a big childcare bill.
The reality of the situation is that there is no such thing as the middle class, it’s just propaganda made up by the ruling class to divide the working class, and it has worked wonders on you. You’re envious of your neighbours, and you see them as your enemies rather than your potential allies in the bigger fight. We are all exploited by the ruling class, and unless we can accept that, we’ll never be able to change things for the better.