Re: Theft or not
I think you're confusing two different sets of taxes.
Apple are certainly required to charge 20% local VAT (like sales tax), and that is fully declared and paid, as are all the usual taxes and charges paid by employers on employees.
Corporately, though, they also make overall profits as a business, and they are required to pay corporate taxes on those. They, quite legally, play games to move those profits to appear in countries with lower tax rates. That's what pisses off countries like France, they see Apple as operating corporately in the country, but not paying the same corporate tax as French companies do.
Apple are merely taking advantage of the over-complex web of tax legislation within the EU, and the fix lies solely in the hands of the EU. There is no good reason why Apple, or any other company, should pay more tax then they are legally required to just because it would be "more fair". If the EU wants them to pay more tax, the EU just has to change the tax laws to make it happen. It could also, perhaps, remove the status of "French company" or "German company" and require any business operating in the EU to define itself as an "EU company" under a common set of rules.
Of course, that's impossible, tax law in the EU is a mismash of compromise and ambiguity because there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of all EU members agreeing to a common, centrally-managed, tax code or business structure.
