????蘋果這家世界上最大的科技公司最近在考克郡設立了一間規模十分可觀的運營中心。這個中心依山而建，地處愛爾蘭南部的一個僻靜小鎮，門口有一個圓形路口，矗立著巨大的耶穌像。此地大概是距離在硅谷庫比蒂諾（Cupertino）的蘋果公司總部最遠的地方了，兩地相隔超過5,000英里。

????除此之外，蘋果分布全球的五間子公司之一的蘋果國際銷售公司（Apple Sales International）也設立于這個約有12萬人口的考克郡。這家公司主要負責iPad、iPhone、電腦和其他各種產品的全球經銷業務。【蘋果歐洲運營公司（Apple Operations Europe）、蘋果國際運營公司（Apple Operations International）、蘋果國際經銷公司（Apple Distribution International）和蘋果運營中心（Apple Operations）亦都設立于此。】這幢由紅磚與玻璃構成的大樓附近并沒有四通八達的高速公路，只有大片的草地和空蕩蕩的足球場，或許還能看到幾匹咀嚼著青草的馬兒。幾英里開外，在布拉尼風雨欲來的天空下，奶牛們依然整天待在草地上，就跟喬布斯1980年來考克郡設立蘋果海外運營中心時一模一樣。

????從正面來看，蘋果公司總部這棟樸實無華的現代三層樓建筑大概會被誤認為是一所高中。不過，這里實在人跡罕至。《財富》雜志選擇的探訪時間是周二上午，保安們很快就注意到了在門口徘徊的記者。于是我們上前詢問這里有沒有能說得上話的人，保安回答說沒有，離此地最近的公共關系部門在倫敦。

????除此之外，在這棟看似不起眼的大樓內進行的業務卻在華盛頓掀起了軒然大波，如今這場風波的矛頭直指愛爾蘭。在五月舉行的美國參議院聽證會上，蘋果公司力證自己規避約合440億美元的政府稅收的方法是在享受愛爾蘭低至12.5%的企業所得稅率的同時，又被該國稅收機制視為無國籍企業，然后通過設立一系列的子公司達到完美避稅。通過這種漏洞，蘋果和其他公司得以將數十億的利潤順利從愛爾蘭通過荷蘭再轉移到零征稅的英屬維京群島，這就是著名的“雙層愛爾蘭夾荷蘭三明治”模式。而蘋果公司始終堅持聲稱自己每賺40美元就給美國國稅局貢獻1美元稅收。約翰?麥凱因議員（他是一名北愛爾蘭移民后裔）雖然承認蘋果公司確實是一個納稅大戶，但他在五月份也指出蘋果公司亦是“美國最大的逃稅者之一”。

????這些財務手段并非無懈可擊——事實上，細微的調整就可產生極大的影響。愛爾蘭財政部長邁可?羅南在10月中旬已經宣布“雙層愛爾蘭”模式不再適用，都柏林政界似乎下定決心要一改自己“科技巨頭避稅天堂”的形象。愛爾蘭首相恩達?肯尼于上周三晚間在都柏林對《財富》雜志和其他媒體說，他想要在全球范圍內打擊避稅的行動中“做出表率”。

????但愛爾蘭早已讓科技巨頭們賺的盆滿缽滿。驅車離開庫克郡機場的這一路，最先映入眼簾的一片群樓是亞馬遜（Amazon）和IBM的運營中心；戴爾（Dell）和馬薩諸塞州的云計算公司EMC都在庫克郡馬洪區有自己的大樓。更多的美國科技公司則涌向了都柏林的硅港區（Silicon Docks），以至于愛爾蘭工業發展局（Ireland's Industrial Development Agency），或稱IDA，最近甚至專門制作了一個通過照片來展示各公司總部大樓的應用軟件， Facebook、微軟（Microsoft）和擁有愛爾蘭全國最高大樓的谷歌（Google）均在展示之列。

????he biggest technology company on Earth has a sizable portion of its operations here on the outskirts of Cork, a provincial town in southern Ireland, up a hill past a traffic circle marked with a large statue of Jesus Christ on the cross. In other words, this is about as far as one can get from Apple's Silicon Valley base of Cupertino, more than five thousand miles away.

????And yet Cork -- population about 120,000 -- is home to five of Apple's global subsidiaries, including Apple Sales International, which manages the company's gargantuan global distribution and sales of iPads, iPhones, computers, and its many other devices. (Also here are Apple Operations Europe, Apple Operations International, Apple Distribution International, and Apple Operations.) Yet there are no multi-lane highways across the street from its redbrick and glass building. Rather, a pair of horses munches on a rangy patch of grass, near to an empty soccer field, while a few miles away, dairy cows laze on the green fields of Blarney under a stormy sky -- just as they did decades ago, when Steve Jobs flew into Cork in 1980 to open Apple's overseas operation.

????From the front, Apple HQ could well be mistaken for a high school, bland and modern, and just three stories high. And foot traffic is thin enough that when Fortune wandered up to the entrance on Tuesday morning, security guards quickly took notice. Was there anyone we could say hello to, we asked? No, the nearest public-relations staffer was in London.

????Despite that, the activities inside this modest building have provoked a firestorm in Washington, which has now rippled all the way back to Ireland. In U.S. Senate hearings last May, Apple (AAPL) struggled to explain how it had managed to avoid an estimated $44 billion or so in U.S. taxes, by taking advantage of Ireland's 12.5% corporate tax rate, as well as mechanisms that effectively rendered it stateless for tax purposes. One loophole has allowed Apple and others to shunt billions in profits from Ireland through the Netherlands to the tax-free British Virgin Islands, by setting up a web of subsidiaries perfectly tailored to avoiding taxes, in the famously-named "Double Irish with a Dutch sandwich" accounting method. Apple insists it contributes about $1 in every $40 in corporate taxes the IRS collects. And while Sen. John McCain (himself a descendent of Irish immigrants from Ulster) admits Apple is a big taxpayer, he pointed out last May that it was also "among America's largest tax avoiders."

????Those accounting acrobatics could be changing -- if only by a little. Ireland's Finance Minister Michael Noonan declared in mid-October that the country was finally canceling the Double Irish. Politicians in Dublin do seem keen to shake off the image of running a tax haven for tech giants, with Prime Minister Enda Kenny telling Fortune and other journalists in Dublin on Wednesday evening that he wanted to "be on the forefront of the response" in the global crackdown on tax avoidance.

????But Ireland is now stuffed with tech giants. Drive out of Cork's small airport, and among the first buildings you see are large operations for Amazon (AMZN) and IBM (IBM); Dell and the Massachusetts cloud-computing company EMC (EMC) each has a large building in Cork's Mahon district. In Dublin, so many U.S. technology companies are squeezed into the city's Silicon Docks that Ireland's Industrial Development Agency, or IDA, recently launched an app showing photos of headquarters buildings for dozens of companies, including Facebook, Microsoft, and Google, which now has the tallest building in the country.