Competition regulators on Tuesday appealed to European Union’s highest court to override a lower tribunal and force Apple to pay a record 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion) in an Irish tax clawback.
The case, which has far-reaching implications for corporate tax bills, is the most high-profile of EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager’s campaign against sweetheart deals between multinationals and European Union states.
The European Commission in a 2016 decision said two Irish tax rulings had for more than two decades artificially reduced Apple’s tax burden, which was as low as 0.005% in 2014. The General Court in 2020 said regulators had not met the legal standard to show Apple had enjoyed an unfair advantage.
Apple refuted the Commission’s arguments, saying it had paid its fair share of taxes in the appropriate country. “The profits we are talking about – the profits the Commission said should be attributed to these branches in Ireland – those profits were in fact subject to the U.S. tax regime,” Daniel Beard told the Court. “Apple built up reserves for the payment of those U.S. taxes and is paying around 20 billion euros in tax in the U.S. on those very same profits that the Commission says should have been taxed by Ireland,” he said. “Apple has paid the taxes that were due under the Irish tax code.”
MacDailyNews Take: The EU’s appeal deserves to fail.
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The post EU appeal seeks to force Apple to pay $14.3 billion tax clawback appeared first on MacDailyNews.
