Here are your Apple Rumors for today:
Taxes: Apple (AAPL) is facing an investigation in Europe over its tax policies in Ireland, reports MacRumors. If regulators find a problem with how the tech company has been handling taxes in the country, then it’s possible that it could have to pay as much as $8 billion in back taxes. It’s possible that this could affect its $64.1 billion of profit that it earned from 2004 to 2012. This would place a 12.5% tax rate on that profit instead of the current tax rate of 1.8%.
Band: Microsoft (MSFT) is trying to pull Apple Watch users toward its new Band 2 with a promotion, AppleInsider notes. Microsoft is offering to pay owners of the Watch up to $250 toward the purchase of a Band 2 smartwatch. The device works with iPhones and MSFT’s own products. The promotion doesn’t just include Microsoft devices, but also other smart devices that are being sold through the company.
Gatekeeper: Apple hasn’t actually fixed the Gatekeeper vulnerability, reports 9to5Mac. The person that first discovered the vulnerability claims that the tech company has only blocked certain apps that take advantage of it. These blocks were put in place when the company released patches to take care of the issue. It was discovered that AAPL hadn’t provided a true fix to the problem after the patches it released were reverse-engineered.
