We are the largest tax payer in Ireland, the largest tax payer in the United States and the largest tax payer in the world.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook last week called the EC decision “total political crap”, saying both Apple and Ireland had played by the rules.
Apple was ordered last week to pay 13 billion euros ($14.6 billion) in back taxes after the Commission said its Irish arrangements constituted illegal state aid.
Ireland’s decision to challenge the ruling reflects fears that accepting the windfall could scare away worldwide investment, undermining a reputation for business-friendliness that is a cornerstone of the country’s economy.
Sinn Fein joined independent lawmakers in opposing Kenny’s plan to lodge an appeal against the European Commission.
Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said Apple made 104 billion euro of tax-free profits over 10 years from 2003 by using Irish-incorporated firms Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe to book sales outside the U.S. and move money into a “sort of untaxed Bermuda triangle”.
“In the year the Commission says we paid that tax figure, we actually paid $400million”. “But this doesn’t mean turning a blind eye to tax avoidance”.
The Commission’s ruling against Apple was met with a warning from Washington that the move could damage hugely important transatlantic economic ties.
“The fundamental point here is Apple unambiguously was trying to avoid taxes and it was doing it in a dishonest way, with complicity from the Irish government, pretending that the money, the profits, the billions of profits it was making, were really being originated in some Irish company that was registered in cyberspace and therefore did not have to pay any taxes”.
The government claims Apple has paid the full amount due to the Irish state from 2004 to 2014 and denies it gave it “selective treatment”.
A similar response will be mounted this time, to fight back against “detractors who paint a cartoonish and negative image of Ireland”, as Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Wednesday.
“It is not true that Apple was provided with more favourable treatment than others”.
Noonan also said other countries had indicated a willingness to support Ireland’s appeal in the European courts.
He described the Commission’s ruling as “especially unhelpful” while efforts are ongoing internationally to reform what he said was a “broken system for corporate tax”. The company employs 4,000 at its Cork campus and announced in November that it will expand that number by 1,000 by 2017.
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The debate coincided with the much-hyped launch in San Francisco of Apple’s latest-generation products, created to cement its place as the world’s most valuable company.
