“Ireland is to comply with a European Commission order to collect a disputed €13bn tax bill from the US firm Apple,” BBC News reports. “The money is now being paid into a blocked separate account, while Ireland appeals the Commission’s decision.”
“The Commission ruled last year that Ireland had given Apple illegal state aid by allowing it to pay an effective 1% corporation tax,” The Beeb reports. “Ireland was referred to the European Court of Justice after it failed to implement an order to collect the tax.”
“The Irish government says it profoundly disagrees with the Commission’s analysis of the case,” The Beeb reports. “The Irish Finance Ministry said in a statement: ‘These sums will be placed into an escrow fund with the proceeds being released only when there has been a final determination in the European Courts over the validity of the Commission’s Decision.'”
“Ireland has lodged an application in the General Court of the European Union for the Commission’s decision to be annulled. Meanwhile Apple is also challenging the Commission’s ruling. Its CEO Tim Cook has called it ‘maddening,'” The Beeb reports. “An Apple spokesperson said the company was confident the General Court would overturn the Commission’s decision: ‘The Commission’s case against Ireland has never been about how much Apple pays in taxes, it’s about which government gets the money. The United States government and the Irish government both agree we’ve paid our taxes according to the law.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The farce from the EC clowns continues.
SEE ALSO:
Ireland expects Apple tax clawback in escrow account in first quarter 2018 – December 4, 2017
Ireland expects progress in Apple tax clawback in coming weeks – November 21, 2017
Apple holds on to tax billions as Ireland set to miss deadline – November 16, 2017
EU sues Ireland over $15.3 billion tax clawback from Apple – October 4, 2017
Ireland opposes EU’s 13 billion euro Apple tax grab, calls it unjustified – August 17, 2017
Apple close to deal protecting Ireland in fight over EU tax grab – August 11, 2017
Ireland seeks custodian for Apple $15.2 billion in back taxes as collection nears – July 22, 2017
EU Commissioner Vestager: Ireland ‘taking too long’ to recover Apple tax – May 19, 2017
EU’s hypocritical Margrethe Vestager going after Apple while backing Madeira tax avoidance scheme – February 14, 2017
Apple has missed the deadline to pay $13.9 billion to Ireland in illegal tax benefits – January 31, 2017
Apple CFO Maestri: What the EC is doing here is a disgrace for European citizens, it should be ashamed’ – December 19, 2016
Apple’s EU tax nemesis Margrethe Vestager takes aim at other U.S. companies’ offshore profits – September 19, 2016
The ‘Brexit-Apple’ connection: What in the world was Margrethe Vestager thinking? – September 12, 2016
EU ministers line up to take tax bites out of Apple – September 12, 2016
Former EU competition commissioner: Vestager claim that Apple owes back taxes an incorrect use of EU law – September 2, 2016
Irish government to fight EU on Apple tax – September 2, 2016
Treasury accuses EU of trying to steal U.S. tax revenues with Apple decision – September 1, 2016
Irish residents opposed to EU’s tax demand of Apple – September 1, 2016
Apple Inc. pushes back against EU tax grab – September 1, 2016
Apple may repatriate billions of dollars next year after new U.S. President takes office – September 1, 2016
U.S. tax code allows for dramatic retaliation against EU overreach in Apple case – September 1, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook on EU tax demand: ‘No one did anything wrong here and Ireland is being picked on… It is total political crap’ – September 1, 2016
U.S. Treasury: The European Commission’s retroactive tax demands on Apple are unfair – August 30, 2016
EU demands Apple pay massive $14.5 billion in taxes plus interest – August 30, 2016
Europe forces companies to pay their due tax.
US uses tax system to transfer money from the poor and middle classes to the rich.
Which way makes more sense?
P.S. “The Commission’s case against Ireland has never been about how much Apple pays in taxes, it’s about which government gets the money.”
I find the misrepresentation interesting. The case is based on the fact that Apple got massive tax breaks that other companies did not. This in the commission’s view amounts to an illegal subsidy, and rightly so. So why is this wrongly represented?
Fact void comments.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/06/a-closer-look-at-who-does-and-doesnt-pay-u-s-income-tax/
Incomes of $100k or less file 83% of returns and pay 19.5% of income taxes paid to the Federal Government.
BTW, it was Irish law that allowed Apple to construct the arrangement there, not the US government. It is the job of a company’s management to pay as little in taxes as possible. The alternative is an array of subjective decisions about what is “fair”. Fair is a concept that many people would disagree about.
Incomplete response. Do you think income tax is the only form of taxation? When looking at total taxation, the rich hide their accumulated wealth such that the working classes are soaked with property taxes, sales taxes, and fees while the real rate of taxation for the elites is near zero.
“rich hide their accumulated wealth” If the “rich” (not sure what that means) are hiding income, whether it is salaries or investment income, that is illegal. So, casting accusations without substantiation is not the basis for an argument.
Regarding property taxes, do you think people who are “rich” and live in expensive homes are not paying property taxes commensurate with the values of their homes? What planet are you on? Real estate taxes in various localities can easily be $20k and much, much higher.
Get real,
Most people who discuss tax policy on this site DO think that the income tax is the only form of taxation. I don’t know how many times I have heard somebody repeat the untruth that the US has the highest corporate taxes in the world. Yes, we have the highest nominal rates, but we also have so many more exemptions and deductions that no company actually pays more than a fraction of the nominal rate. We do not have a Value Added Tax, which has replaced the income tax as the major source of government revenue in most other countries.
As a result, the total tax burden on US taxpayers (taxes paid as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product) ranks #183 among the nations of the world.
As I have long argued a country enters (by EU claims) into an illegal tax agreement with a company when it should know what the regulations are (though in th EU the goal posts never stay anywhere for long) thus getting massive investment by that company to the potential disadvantage of other countries. Yet the punishment is that it gets all the tax money it loses by making said illegal agreement back. That is some bonus for Ireland and one kick in the vulnerable areas to the deceived company. I have heard no word as yet over the years this as continued of any fine on Ireland for making/agreeing to such an illegal agreement, it’s all on the non member of the cosy club. The EU just loves it’s Complex games of fraud, the mafia could learn a thing or two from its tactics.
As someone else suggested on another thread, if an employer agreed with an employee to pay him more than some statuatory cap, the remedy would be to force the employee to refund the overpayment. That would leave both parties where they would have been if they had followed the law. It isn’t unjust enrichment for Ireland to collect the taxes it should have been paid in the first place… assuming that the court finds against Apple and Ireland, which I hope it won’t!
I think the initiation of payments is actually to an escrow account constructed to hold the money if Apple prevails and doesn’t have to pay the penalty to Ireland. Apparently some understandable concern was voiced to construct the escrow account to shield Ireland from the interest payments on that large sum sitting in escrow until this matter is litigated.
The EU is The Fourth Reich, and it will fail just like the Third.
Armchair oligarch botvink spouts more bullshit. Government is always bad in your view unless it is gerrymandered to aid your narrow interests.
are you a little 9 year old boy?
do you need help. maybe go read something? that helped me.
no, it didn’t.
Botty can’t read he just parrots breibart falsehoods.
It isn’t a farce MDN…Apple quite rightly needs to pay its taxes like every other business rather than looking for ways to get around paying taxes. Cough up.