Apple chief Tim Cook on Thursday, September 1, slammed a European Commission ruling demanding the USA tech behemoth pay Ireland €13 billion in back-taxes as “political crap”, urging the Irish government to launch an appeal.
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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. “When you’re accused of doing something that is so foreign to your values, it brings out outrage in you”.
Cook refused to say what Apple would do if Ireland decided not to appeal the Commission’s decision, saying only that he was confident the country would “do the right thing”.
Earlier: Apple boss Tim Cook has called Europe’s ruling on its tax bill “political crap”.
The head of Apple told the press that the commission literally “picked a number from I don’t know where”, according to the Irish Independent.
The European Commission this week ruled that Apple must pay €13bn in back taxes to Ireland for revenues booked through operations based in Ireland.
This week, the European Union ordered the company based in Cupertino, California, to pay $14.5 billion in back taxes to Ireland plus billions more in interest.
At a news conference on Tuesday, the EC’s commissioner for competition, Margrethe Vestager, detailed the way Apple’s tax strategy in Ireland had worked.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said USA taxpayers could ultimately bear the brunt of the decision, if Apple is forced to make the payment, because the company then could deduct the billions it pays Ireland from the US taxes it owes. Despite what’s going on, Cook says Apple will continue with its plan to expand in Cork, noting that the company is “very committed to Ireland”.
The Education Minister says the ruling simply has to be appealed.
Ms Vestager said the commission was within its rights to pursue the state aid case as the issue concerned Europe. Vestager responded that “the figures we used in our decision were figures we got from Apple themselves and from the 2011 USA hearings.Very little if any figures were in the public domain”, she said. It’s not true – there wasn’t a special deal between Ireland and Apple.
The Commission can order recovery of illegal state aid for a ten-year period preceding the Commission’s first request for information in 2013. Cook has complained in the past that high US taxes have discouraged the company from bringing those earnings home.
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“We always have the courts to keep us in a straight line based on facts”.
