Apple boss Tim Cook has branded his company’s 13 billion euro (£11 billion) bill for unpaid taxes in Europe as “political crap”, maddening and untrue.
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In the interview with Irish state broadcaster RTE, Cook said part of the company’s 2014 tax bill would be paid next year when the company repatriates billions of dollars of offshore profits to the United States. Unfortunately it’s one of those things we have to work through. Before being named CEO in August 2011, Tim was Apple’s Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for all of the company’s worldwide sales and operations.
As a result the EU Commission said the Irish Government had effectively allowed Apple to pay a corporate tax rate of no more than one per cent. The EC said that in terms of its global profits, Apple had created a phony company that allowed it to reduce its tax rate on most of its profits to.005 percent at one point.
“National tax authorities, including HM Revenue & Customs, will be looking carefully at the EU Commission announcement”. Cook also sounded confident that the Irish government will appeal the ruling.
The EU executive this week retroactively scrapped a tax deal Apple had with Ireland, arguing the technology giant was effectively paying a 1 percent tax rate on its profits. The Commission’s investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years.
Echoing an open letter published earlier in the week, Cook said that the claims that Apple was given preferential treatment and special tax arrangements in Ireland have “no basis in fact or in law”.
He suggested that this process will happen next year.
He said Apple is “very committed to Ireland”. Even if it weren’t like this, we always have the courts to keep us in line.
Apple will still proceed with a planned expansion in Cork, Ireland, Cook told the Irish Independent, but the company also hopes the Irish government will follow Apple’s lead and appeal the ruling. The Commission should have taken the white paper seriously that the Treasury sent, as it just might have backed itself against the wall amid its aggressive crackdown on USA companies.
“It’s like playing a sports game and winning the championship and then finding out the goals are worth less than you thought they were”, he said.
Yesterday, a five-hour cabinet meeting finished with the issue adjourned until Friday.
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“It’s a false number”, Cook said. I’d be the first to say that the tax system needs to be reformed and that it should be made simple and straightforward.
