Apple CEO Tim Cook has termed the European Commission’s order for the tech giant to pay 13 billion euros in taxes to Ireland as “total political crap”.
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In an interview to Irish Independent newspaper, Cook said Ireland is being “picked on”. He also said the commission was rewriting Apple’s record in Ireland, overriding Irish law and disrupting the worldwide tax system.
“There wasn’t a special deal between Ireland and Apple, it didn’t exist. There should be a public discussion about it”. She questioned how anyone might think that Apple’s 2014 Irish tax rate of 0.005 percent was fair.
“I’m very confident that the courts will take a nonpolitical view of this and come to the right decision”, he said. “In that year we paid $400 million to Ireland, and that amount of money was based on the statutory tax rate of 12.5 percent”.
Cook’s stance falls in line with his open letter on the situation from earlier in the week, first providing backstory about Apple’s history in Ireland and then remaining hopeful that the ruling will ultimately be overturned.
The European Commission has already ruled that Starbucks has benefited from tax arrangements in the Netherlands that constitute state aid, a decision which is being appealed.
Nearly all the profits recorded by Apple’s Irish incorporated entities were internally transferred to a so-called head office, which existed only on paper, the EU’s investigation found.
Apple’s tax treatment in Ireland enabled the company to avoid taxation on nearly all profits generated by sales of Apple products in the entire EU Single Market.
Responding to Cook’s comments, European Union competition chief Margrethe Vestager called on Apple and Ireland to allow the release of the details of the confidential ruling.
The EU has also ordered Starbucks to pay more taxes to the Netherlands.
According to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, the decision is amounted to a “transfer of revenue from United States taxpayers to the EU”.
“It has not been diminished one iota, we are completely committed to Ireland”. But it failed to agree a position, and will meet again on Friday to decide whether to appeal against the Commission’s decision.
Cook, who announced further expansion plans in Cork, said he would “love” to see the Irish government appeal.
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Moreover, Apple has provisioned “several billion dollars” from its profits in 2014 to be repatriated to the USA, he said.
