Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said he fully backs the government’s plan to appeal the Apple tax ruling.
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Finance minister Michael Noonan said when the EC ruling was announced earlier this week that he would seek cabinet approval for an appeal. “National authorities can not give tax benefits to some companies and not to others”.
Mr Cook told RTE that the Commission’s claim that “Ireland’s selective treatment of Apple allowed the company to pay an effective tax rate of 0.005 percent on its European profits in 2014” was an untrue figure and that the company paid “a worldwide income tax rate” of 26.1 percent that year.
“They have made that decision and they have good reasons, from what I can see, to have made that decision”.
European Union leaders called Sunday for China to take action on its bloated steel industry and defended an order to Ireland to collect taxes from Apple, highlighting the trade tensions looming over a global economic summit. “It is going to be quite expensive and prolonged but the investigation was quite lengthy as well”.
Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook last week described the ruling as “total political crap“, but France and Germany have come out to back Brussels on the decision. He rejected suggestions that the decision would have an impact on Ireland’s ability to attract foreign direct investment.
The call comes as the Dáil is due to be recalled this week to debate the European Commission’s €13bn Apple tax ruling.
“I would say it is hard for the G-20 to come up with a coordinated action plan because numerous countries are caught up in domestic issues”, Biswas said.
Speaking in Cork where he opened a European conference on rural development, Mr Hogan said he was aware a ruling was due last week but said he did not know the amount involved until it was published.
Asked if he found himself in a hard position, given Mr Noonan’s comments saying the decision was politically motivated and a strong denial by European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, Mr Hogan said his obligation was to fulfil his role as a European Commissioner for Agriculture.
“This is the level playing field the [European] Commission is always working to defend”.
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On August 31, he failed to persuade a group of independent lawmakers, whose support is vital for the minority government, to agree to fight the ruling by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager that Apple’s low tax arrangements in Ireland constitute illegal state aid, according to Reuters.
