Ethics is becoming a key part of business practice as investors and consumers are not only looking for businesses that gain the most profit however, that they gain profit ethically. Recently, Apple one of the world’s largest technology firms has been caught up in a Irish tax issue. According to The Economist, The European Union (EU) Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told the Irish government to claim thirteen billion euros in unpaid tax from Apple. The tech giant was accused of not paying the full corporate tax of 12.5% and that they paid less than 1%. Apple’s CFO, Luca Maestri objected the accusation and said that Apple did pay the full 12.5% and that the EU was using the wrong numbers to calculate how much tax they paid.
In my opinion, tax avoidance is part of ethics in business as if a firm does not follow the tax regulations of a nation than they should be considered to be an unethical business. Going back to the discussion in class this article highlights on how government intervention impacts on various stakeholders In this case there are quite a few, Apple and its Investors, consumers and the government. The accusation from the EU and the Irish government to recover 13 billion euros in tax from Apple would see them benefit as their would be more tax money that the government could use to provide public services and infrastructure. These services may include, public healthcare and safety through investing in hospitals and emergency services. On the other hand, Apple and its investors will loose out as apple’s profits would be significantly impacted meaning that investors would fear from not gaining their monthly dividends, This is shown in figure one provided by Yahoo Finance which shows Apple’s share price falling from 108 USD to 103 USD in the time this was released to the public meaning investors feared that their dividends would not be paid. Consumers are also affected as consumer confidence will go down meaning sales of Apple products will decrease if they are indeed proven to have committed tax evasion. 
Finally, bringing it back round to ethics in business and cooperate social responsibility I personally believe the businesses that practice business ethically may be worse off in the short run however, they will prosper in the long run. The reason why I think this is because as the years have progressed from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries people have begun to change their way of thinking in conducting business from a numbers game of who can make the mot profit to adding intrinsic value to their businesses. You can see this being championed by the great business leaders like Warren Buffet and others.
[Word Count: 445]