The European Commission is set to take a big bite out of Apple on Tuesday.
ADVERTISEMENTThe European Commission is set to take a big bite out of Apple on Tuesday.
The tech giant could be ordered to pay billions of euros in back taxes to the government in Dublin.
The EU has accused Apple, which employs thousands of people in Ireland, of benefiting unfairly from special arrangements with the country that allowed it to keep its tax bills there to a minimum.
As a result, the bloc’s Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager could slap Europe’s biggest ever tax penalty on Apple – with Ireland facing claims it effectively gave illegal state aid.
European Commission expected to declare that Ireland's tax arrangements with Apple amounts to illegal state aidhttps://t.co/xzdCB0CJsR
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) 30 août 2016
Ireland’s low corporate tax rate has been a cornerstone of economic policy for 20 years, drawing investors from major multinational companies whose staff account for almost one in 10 workers in
the country.
Apple and Ireland deny wrongdoing; both have said they will appeal any adverse ruling.
Any bill in excess of 1 billion euros would be far more than the 30 million euros each the European Commission previously ordered Dutch authorities to recover from US coffee chain Starbucks
and Luxembourg from Fiat Chrysler for their tax deals.
Both companies and countries have appealed those decisions.
The US government has also weighed into the row over Tim Cook’s company, accusing the European Commission of deliberately targeting American firms – something Brussels denies.
A huge tax bill would make all the wrong headlines ahead of early September’s expected unveiling of Apple’s latest iPhone.
Hot off the presses. Apple makes it official: SF presser on Sept 7. Presumption: new iPhone, Apple Watch pic.twitter.com/ibN3VaSaJM
— Ed Baig (@edbaig) 29 août 2016