The European Union wants the $ 15.8 billion in back taxation it says Apple owes and is invoke a July 2020 court opinion that let the tech heavyweight off scot - free , Bloomberg reportedon Monday .
Last year , EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestagerlost a major casedemanding Apple paynearly $ 16 billion in taxeson income it had route through its units based in Ireland . At the sentence , the EU General Court establish authorities had failed to fit “ the requisite sound standard ” to show Ireland or Apple were in irreverence of international law . The opinion was a hammer snow to Vestager ’s campaign to hold massive technical school company accountable for alleged monopolistic or unfair business drill — and it set a precedent that rent Apple keep to route nearly all non - American revenue through Ireland , atax haven .
EU challenger official argue the Irish government had offered an illegal sweetheart deal to Apple that present it an unjust advantage over other companies , and so Irish tax authorities were obligated to pick up about $ 15.8 billion in back revenue enhancement . Ireland was thus placed in the strange position of contend it should be allow for to entrust a fortune on the tabular array , with both Ireland and Apple maintaining that the arrangement was in double-dyed alignment with the alphabetic character of the law .
Protesters against Apple’s tax avoidance strategies outside the Parliament of Ireland in Dublin on 4 February 2025.Photo: Paul Faith/AFP (Getty Images)
That position wasbacked by the U.S.Treasury , which has two dueling inducement against Ireland collecting that revenue enhancement revenue . The first is that the U.S. government was attempting to convince the Cupertino , California - based company to repatriate its seaward accounts stateside ; Europe getting its gash would reduce the eventual revenue collected by the IRS . The second is that the U.S. government purport to shield Apple from consequences because its status as one of the most remunerative companies in the world cements the U.S. as the prevalent country in the consumer tech space .
exceedingly powerfulcorporate lobbiesalso vociferously rallied against the EU ’s tax probe of Apple and forrevised U.S. revenue enhancement lawthat would make it easy for them to return extraneous net to the U.S. while still savour cut - rate tax Federal Reserve note . For all the talk of collecting taxes on Apple profit repatriated to the state , U.S. legislator have been happy toslash corporate tax ratesin recent years in a way that finally ensures incarnate giants give a relative pittance .
grant to Bloomberg , in asummary of their entreaty , the European Commission characterize the General Court opinion as not seriously engaging with its sound arguments about Apple ’s Irish unit of measurement , containing “ contradictory reasoning , ” and falsely associating the military issue of Apple not employing staff at two of the Irish whole with unrelated intellectual property consequence . Nicole Robins , a partner at Brussels - based economics firm Oxera , told Bloomberg that losing this last appeal would be a “ major setback ” for EU authority and “ take on a far higher standard of grounds to demonstrate that such taxation ruling confab an economical advantage to the multinational in question and therefore constitute illegal state aid . ”
If the EU ca n’t make progress against tax havens through the courts , that may reinvigorate efforts to pass an EU - wide jurisprudence requiring tech firms and other digital company be taxed on gross at the full stop of cut-rate sale , not profits . While U.S. opposition tanked that elbow grease , some nation includingFrance and the UKare simplypassing their own taxeson digital services . Donald Trump ’s administration responded indignantly by having the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative declare those law of nature discriminatory , but it will ultimately beup to Joe Biden ’s White Housewhether to succeed through withretaliatory trade tariff .
Apple CEO Tim Cook has betoken support for agroup of 137 countries , spearheaded by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development , negotiating uniform external revenue enhancement regulation for tech companies . But he ’d obviously prefer that any reform be on terms favorable for Apple . Last month , Cooktold reporters“I think logically everybody knows it needs to be rehauled , I would certainly be the last person to say that the current system or the preceding system was the perfect organisation . I ’m hopeful and optimistic that they ( the OECD ) will find something . ”
“ It ’s very complex to know how to assess a transnational , ” Cook added . “ … We desperately want it to be fair . ”
Apple secern Bloomberg in a statement that the General Court “ categorically annul the commissioning ’s casing in July and the fact have not changed since then . After a thoroughgoing review of the facts and the delegation ’s claims , [ the courtroom was ] light in their determination that Apple has always suffer by the law in Ireland , as we do everywhere we operate . ”
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