According to the European Commission, Apple owes Ireland $14.5 billion in back taxes after discovering that Apple had been paying a tax rate as low as 0.005%. “And I think that (anti-U.S. sentiment) is one reason why we could have been targeted”.
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He added: “There wasn’t a special deal between Ireland and Apple, it didn’t exist”.
Cook said past year that he would “love to” repatriate Apple’s foreign profits but that he can’t because “it would cost me 40%”. “It’s clear that this comes from a political place”.
“The Commission’s case is not about how much Apple pays in taxes, it’s about which government collects the money”.
Mr Cook spoke as Independent members of Ireland’s fragile minority Government seek legal explanations of the 130-page ruling from Commissioner Margrethe Vestager and whether they should support Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s call for an immediate legal challenge. “We will appeal and we are confident the decision will be overturned”. Many executives, including Apple, have said that rate is unfair. “We paid $400m in taxes in 2014”.
Earlier this week European Union competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that Ireland failing to collect taxes from Apple at the standard rate of 12.5 per cent amounted to “state aid” and thus illegally harmed competition across the EU’s single market.
Apple and the Irish government have both continually denied any wrongdoing, Cook stating that they had both “played by the rules” and would go on to defeat the Commission on appeal. The Irish tax authority has also disputed the ruling.
“No one did anything wrong here and we need to stand together”, Cook added.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the commission had aimed “squarely at our tax base” and warned such moves could undermine the “spirit of economic cooperation and [is] inconsistent with well-established principles of tax laws”.
That is just £50 in taxes on every £1m of profit.
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Ireland’s corporate tax rate is 12.5 percent on business profits. More than just lip service, Cook had plenty of nice things to say about the country and the 37-year “deep relationship” it’s had with Apple. “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”. It is by far the largest anti-competition penalty imposed on a company by the EU.
