“As Ireland braces itself for a possible European Union order to claw back Apple Inc.’s unpaid taxes, government officials warned Finance Minister Michael Noonan that he would face two crucial questions upon delivery of a ruling that could come ‘soon,'” Stephanie Bodoni, Dara Doyle, and Aoife White report for Bloomberg.
“The first is whether to appeal at the EU’s top court. The second, is what to do with the ‘large recovery amounts’ pending the outcome,” Bodoni, Doyle, and White report. “Ireland could be sitting on the cash for ‘several years,’ according to a briefing note from last month published Wednesday. Amid growing speculation that Apple could be forced to pay back billions of euros of tax breaks, officials said they are preparing for the worst and that an adverse ruling ‘could have significant negative implications for Ireland, in terms of reputation and the creation of uncertainty around our tax system.'”
“Ireland has consistently said it’s done nothing wrong and that it would appeal any negative decision from the European Commission,” Bodoni, Doyle, and White report. “Officials said in the note they had no firm date for when the EU authority would deliver a decision.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple followed the law when paying their taxes:
There was no special deal that we cut with Ireland. We simply followed the laws in the country over the 35 years that we have been in Ireland. If the question is, was there ever a ‘quid pro quo’ that we were trying to strike with the Irish government – that was never the case. We’ve always been very transparent with the Irish government that we wanted to be a good corporate citizen… If countries change the tax laws, we will abide by the new laws and we will pay taxes according to those laws. – Apple CFO Luca Maestri
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