The EU ruling decided that the company had been given the figure in tax benefits, which were illegal.
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The Republic could trigger a “more conflicted relationship” with some fellow European Union states if it appeals a European Commission ruling it recover €13 billion of unpaid taxes from Apple, according to Standard & Poor’s.
He added: “I think both parties feel like the decision is wrong, is not based on law or facts”. Cook told The Washington Post in August that the company won’t bring the money back “until there’s a fair rate” but said he was optimistic of corporate tax changes next year.
“This is insane talk”, said Daniel Shaviro, professor of tax law at New York University.
COOK’S LETTER: “The opinion issued on August 30th alleges that Ireland gave Apple a special deal on our taxes”.
Mr Cook said the numbers had been set out in the company’s quarterly accounts and that Apple paid $400 million corporation tax in Ireland in 2014, another 400 million USA dollars of similarly classed tax in the United States and set aside billions more for tax bills in America that year. It found that the global technology brand had paid only 0.005 per cent of tax due in 2014, and claimed that Apple paid a worldwide rate of 26.1 per cent on its earnings that year. “It’s normal to make Apple pay normal taxes”.
However, the company will continue to invest in its long-established corporate base in Cork, and will work with the Irish government, which also opposes the ruling, to appeal against it.
The cabinet met on Wednesday but failed to reach agreement and will meet again on Friday as it puzzles over whether to accept the unprecedented windfall ordered by Brussels. “They just picked a number from I don’t know where”, he said.
The decision against Apple marks a tightening policy on tax avoidance schemes, which could force large corporations to rethink their tax strategy.
COOK’S LETTER:”In Apple’s case, almost all of our research and development takes place in California, so the vast majority of our profits are taxed in the United States”. Apple follows the law and pays all of the taxes we owe wherever we operate.
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Apple was found to be holding over $181 billion in accumulated profits offshore, more than any USA company, in a study published previous year by two left-leaning nonprofit groups, a policy critics say is created to avoid paying U.S taxes. “We paid $400m in taxes to Ireland in 2014… that is one out of every $15 in taxes that were paid in the entire country”, he insisted.
