Stephen Kinsella: The true cost of scrapping an ‘almost perfect’ tax

Ditch the USC and the middle classes will still have to stump up the cost of the spending increases we need

Public pay deal worth €887m. Pic: iStock

The European Union is investigating Apple to see if it owes countries like Ireland billions in unpaid taxes. As of the second quarter of 2016, Apple has a cash balance of around $231 billion. To put that in its proper context, Ireland’s total national debt is around $226 billion.

Apple can obviously afford whatever the fine is. There’s a lot of money to play for. The pile of multinational cash parked overseas in ...