Cook earlier told Irish national broadcaster RTE that Apple had never received any “sweetheart deal” from Ireland and that his company’s global tax rate in 2014 was 21.6%. “Apple has always been about doing the right thing”, he added. “There should be a public discussion about it”.
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Mr Cook disputed the Commission’s finding that Apple had effectively paid a corporate tax rate of just 0.005%, or €50 out of every €1m, from one of its Ireland-based subsidiaries in 2014.
Apple still planned to go ahead with an expansion in Cork, he said.
Ms O’Reilly’s mother pays 10 euros (around $15) tax on a monthly pension of 1,050 euros ($1558), a higher rate than the European Union said Apple’s main Irish unit paid on its profits in 2014.
The EU courts have the power to cut or overturn repayment orders if they find fault with the commission’s methodology during the appeals process.
Following an in-depth state aid investigation launched in mid-2014, the rulings endorsed a way to establish the taxable profits for two Irish incorporated companies of the Apple group (Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe), which did not correspond to economic reality. Ireland is also expected to appeal, although the government postponed a decision on Wednesday. “No one did anything wrong here and we need to stand together”, Cook told Irish Independent in an interview. “I don’t think they’ve been illegal in what they’ve done, it’s the tax system as it’s set up”, said Alliance member John Halligan, a junior minister who is not a cabinet member. Vestager responded that “the figures we used in our decision were figures we got from Apple themselves and from the 2011 U.S. hearings.Very little if any figures were in the public domain”, she said.
“I think that Apple was targeted here”. As for the assertion that Apple was offered a 0.005% tax rate by Ireland, Cook calls it “total political crap”.
Tuesday’s ruling by the Commission followed a three-year investigation into the USA company’s tax arrangements in Europe.
On Tuesday the European Commission said Ireland had effectively granted Apple billions of euros worth of undue tax benefits.
He also added that Apple had provisioned “several billion dollars” from its profits in 2014 for repatriation to the USA, which would then be used to fulfil the company’s tax liabilities in the country.
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Apple Ireland is very profitable. “If this appeal is successful, the European Commission will nearly certainly appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union, which would likely take a further two years to make a final ruling on the matter”.
