Mike's Minute: Do you support tax-dodging Apple?

Opinion

So as we sit with baited breath awaiting the release of the iPhone X, do you think any differently of Apple now that the Paradise Papers have revealed they love a tax haven? Apple isn't alone, everyone from Bono to the Queen are caught up in it.

People who have money, look to shuffle that money around the world in search of a place that allows them to pay virtually no tax.

Apple is an almost trillion dollar company. Apple had $500 billion in cash alone, and according to the paradise papers some of that is because Steve Jobs was a genius, and changed the tech world and part of it appears because Apple doesn't like paying tax.

Up until 2014, Apple was exploiting tax rules in the States and Ireland in a scheme that was known as the double Irish, meaning they paid as little as 0.005% in tax.

This is why various countries, including the EU, Australia and and to a lesser extent New Zealand, are looking for ways to get these companies to actually stump up what we deem their "fair share". In that, is the complexity and nub of the problem.

None of this is illegal. And therefore, determining what a "fair share" should be, is open to a great deal of debate.

But the inference in the paradise papers is not about legality, it's about morality.

Which brings us back to a company that has people in lines outside their shops. Which ultimately is how this thing gets solved, if it ever does. Does anyone care? Do the people in the lines with their $2000 for the iPhone X feel aggrieved and ripped off by Apple? Do they feel any sense of unfairness towards the company they're about to unload yet more of their money to?

Because that's the tech and phone industry isn't it. New model after new model, the never ending desire to be cool, to be seen to be cool to have the latest thing. Part of Apple's brand is about being cool.

So this one of those stories where everyone tuts tuts. Headline writers revel in the ability to whack the Queen, Bono, and Apple into a headline to isolate them as ultra-rich, money-grubbing currency shufflers, hoping for some form of moral outrage, only to be met with a ho hum sort of response.

What do you reckon it would be ? The poll, 100 people in an apple queue, how many would care I reckon less than 50. How many would be aggrieved enough to not buy a phone? I reckon no-one. And in that, is the real weight of the story. In theory, it's an outrageous scandal. In reality, it's fish and chip wrapper.