While the EC has deemed the agreements as illegal state aid, Apple and Ireland have repeatedly said the company “follows the law”.
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Cook’s stance falls in line with his open letter on the situation from earlier in the week, first providing backstory about Apple’s history in Ireland and then remaining hopeful that the ruling will ultimately be overturned.
Cook, in an interview with the Irish Independent, labelled Brussels’ competition chief Margrethe Vestager’s decision as “total political crap”.
Controversy has raged across the country on whether to pursue the unpaid tax and risk the wrath of multinationals, which the Irish economy depends heavily upon, or to fight the European Union finding. “I think we should stand up and say that very clearly”. He also said the commission was rewriting Apple’s record in Ireland, overriding Irish law and disrupting the worldwide tax system. “Ireland is being picked on and this is unacceptable”, Mr Cook said.
“Ireland and Apple have acted not only in the law, but did what was right”.
“It’s a false number, I have no idea where the number came from”, he said.
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”. “We believe that makes us the highest taxpayer in Ireland that year”, he told the Irish newspaper.
If the Independent Alliance refused to back an appeal and pulled out of government, Fine Gael would no longer have sufficient support in parliament to pass legislation and the government could collapse.
Apple’s chief executive says the company has put aside “several billion dollars” to pay tax liabilities in the United States as it repatriates some of its huge overseas earnings.
The Commission’s investigation found that Apple paid an effective corporate tax rate of one per cent on European profits in 2003, falling to 0.005 per cent in 2014.
Cook, who announced further expansion plans in Cork, said he would “love” to see the Irish government appeal.
“We are completely committed to Ireland”. The reason for all that, Apple says, is not because of how much tax Apple pays, but “about which government collects the money”.
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Ireland was ordered to collect up to $14.5 billion in back taxes, plus interest. Now those provisions total about $30 billion, Apple says.
