Ireland claimed that the US company’s tax treatment was in line with Irish and European Union law. “Apple now has to repay the benefits”. Many executives, including Apple, have said that rate is unfair. The case could drag out for years in European Union and Irish courts.
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The European Commission has accused Ireland, not of operating an unfairly low corporate tax regime generally, nor even of operating a corporate tax regime that unfairly favours large, profitable multinationals in general. The staff of multinational companies account for nearly one in 10 of the country’s workers.
So, why not join with the Commission in encouraging other European countries to seek to reclaim those profits generated by Apple Sales International’s sale of Apple products in their jurisdictions? In 2011, it earned $22 billion. However, the Irish tax authority agreed only 50 million euros of this was taxable in Ireland under the terms of Apple’s tax deal.
The logic of that position is that we should drag all senior management within the Revenue Commissioners from 1991 through 2007 before a Tribunal as quickly as possible to establish why, how and on whose behalf they followed this illegal course.
On Thursday, Mr. Cook, in an interview with Irish state broadcaster RTE, appeared to go a step further, saying Apple could start to move some of the profits it has earned from its worldwide operations to the US next year.
Jack Lew, the US Treasury Secretary, spoke out against the Commission’s ruling, saying “I have been concerned that it reflected an attempt to reach into the USA tax base to tax income that ought to be taxed in the United States”. A U.S. Treasury spokesperson also warned the move threatens to undermine U.S. investment in Europe.
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“I think we’ll work very closely together as we have the same motivation”. Amazon.com Inc and McDonald’s Corp are also under investigation by the Commission. In the year that the commission says we paid that tax figure, we actually paid $400 million.
