The European Commission’s ruling that Apple should pay 13 billion euros of back-dated taxes could help Ireland reduce its debt significantly but may undermine the Irish government in the process, Standard & Poor’s told Reuters on Thursday. That refers to the combined US federal and state tax rate Apple would likely owe.
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The Government still has not decided if it will appeal the Apple ruling.
“It’s total political crap, ” Cook said.
“No one did anything wrong here and we need to stand together”, Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, said in an interview with the Irish Independent newspaper.
“When you’re accused of doing something so foreign to your values it brings out an outrage in you”, he said.
“They are doing the wrong thing”.
“It’s a false number”. Here is the truth.
Cook says Apple will continue expansion plans in Ireland as usual, including breaking ground on a new data center very soon, despite the overhanging tax quagmire. In 2014, the tech firm paid tax at just 0.005%.
Apple’s Tm Cook: ‘It’s maddening; it’s disappointing; it comes from a political place – it has no basis in fact or law’.
All in protest of the government’s handling of the whole Apple tax situation.
Apple has warned that future investment by multinationals in Europe could be hit after it was ordered to pay a record-breaking €13bn (£11bn) in back taxes to Ireland.
Apple would fight with Ireland to overturn the ruling – by far the largest anti-competition measure imposed on a company by the European Union – which he said had “no basis in law or in fact”.
FILE – Apple Operations International, a subsidiary of Apple Inc, is seen in Hollyhill, Cork, in the south of Ireland May 21, 2013.
“Right now I would forecast that repatriation to occur next year. Here is the truth, in that year we paid $400m to Ireland and that was based on the statutory rate of 12.5 per cent”.
“There are other possibilities too, but I think it’s clear that there is a desire to harmonise tax rates across the EU”.
Why Did the EU Launch the Tax Crackdown? Apple has an around £69 billion stashed offshore. The tax deal was first agreed to in 1991 and renewed in 2007. In this case, it’s as a tax benefit.
Apple said on Tuesday that the decision would be harmful for jobs.
European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager dismissed Cook’s broadside, saying the demand for a $14.5 billion back tax payment to Ireland was based on the facts.
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Speaking before a meeting of the Irish cabinet on Wednesday to discuss the ruling, Prime Minister Enda Kenny told reporters: “Obviously this is unprecedented so we’re going to have a good discussion about it this morning”.
