Apple to Create 1,000 New Jobs in Ireland by Mid-2017

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Apple will create 1,000 new jobs in Ireland, the Irish government announced on Wednesday, reports Reuters. The move comes ahead of the EU ruling on Apple’s “sweetheart” deal with Ireland.

Ireland’s main foreign investment agency, the IDA, said Apple was to add 1,000 jobs to its office in Cork by mid-2017 from 5,000 at present. It said the company had also added 1,000 jobs in the past year.

Last year the European Union accused Ireland of letting Apple shelter profits worth tens of billions of dollars from revenue collectors, as long as it maintained jobs in the country. As a result, an investigation was launched, the outcome of which is expected to be made public after Christmas, according to Finance Minister Michael Noonan.

Since then Apple has made several announcements, all of them emphasizing that the company is staying in Ireland and is committed to creating more jobs in the country. This year it had already announced the construction of a new €850 million data centre, and now the creation of more jobs.

What captured the European authorities’ attention, though, is that Apple paid an average tax rate of just 2.5% on around $109 billion non-US profits in the five years up to 2014. That tax rate is only a fraction of Ireland’s 12.5% rate.

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