At the time it was mooted that perhaps Ireland should be required to start charging companies higher taxes.
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The Green Party said that the Government’s decision to appeal the Commission’s Apple tax findings was “inconsistent” with fighting for global tax justice.
Apple has vehemently disputed the claim and said it will appeal against the ruling.
The Dail parliament will be recalled next Wednesday to seek support for the appeal. Irish public expenditure minister Paschal Donohue defended the appeal as a way to maintain Ireland’s economic model, according to Reuters. “We don’t understand where the Commission’s figures are coming from”.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook recently told The Post that his company won’t invest in the United States until there is a “fair rate” for corporate taxation here [“Why Ireland is willing to subsidize Apple to the tune of $220,000 per job”, Wonkblog excerpt, September 1].
“They just picked a number from I don’t know where”.
Apple was found to be holding over US$181 billion in accumulated profits offshore, more than any U.S. company, in a study published past year by two left-leaning nonprofit groups, a policy critics say is created to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
The $14.5 billion tax penalty is equivalent to what Ireland spent previous year on funding its struggling health service and some left-of-center political parties have urged the government to accept the judgment and spend the money on a variety of projects.
Cupertino CEO Tim Cook said that the commission’s ruling was “political” and “maddening” and that he is confident that it would be overturned on appeal.
Ireland’s cabinet has agreed to join Apple in appealing against a multi-billion-euro back tax demand that the European Commission has imposed on the iPhone maker.
Rumblings protesting about the cash mountain built by Apple in recent years have come to a head with the ruling. “Any tax that Apple pays to Ireland as a result of the EU’s ruling could generate foreign tax credits that ultimately would reduce the USA tax the Treasury could collect”. Apple constructed its company to use the tax regime. Other theoretically American companies, including Amazon, McDonald’s, Mylan and Starbucks, have advantageous deals with other European Union countries, such as Luxembourg and Netherlands.
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says the European Commission is singling out American companies for tax investigations. He put its corporation tax bill at 26.1%. In effect, she told the USA that it might get a piece. An EU panel concluded Apple received improper aid because it paid lower rates than other companies. “National authorities can not give tax benefits to some companies and not to others”.
In October, the European Commission ruled that a tax arrangement between Starbucks and the Netherlands was illegal.
Ireland and some other European nations attract many U.S. companies that decide to base there operations there.
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“This is not a decision against the United States of America”, said Mr Juncker. They show the company dickering with Ireland over how much tax it was willing to pay, with the size of its Ireland workforce hanging in the balance.
