“Corporate America’s most powerful chief executives are rallying to Apple’s side in its tax battle with the EU, appealing directly to European heads of government to overturn Brussels’ demand for billions of euros from the tech group,” Barney Jopson reports for The Financial Times. “A group of 185 American CEOs has urged the leaders of 28 EU member states to reverse a European Commission ruling that requires Apple to reimburse Ireland for €13bn in underpaid taxes, calling the attempt a ‘grievous self-inflicted wound.'”
“The push for national governments to intervene — contained in letters sent to leaders by the Business Roundtable on Thursday — marks an escalation in US attacks on the EU, whose decision has already been slammed as ‘political crap’ by Apple boss Tim Cook,” Jopson reports. “The corporate chiefs, who are already grappling with uncertainty over the outcome of the presidential election at home, warn the commission’s decision threatens to scare away investment by legitimising abrupt reversals of government policy overseas. ‘In the interest of all countries that respect the rule of law, this decision must not be allowed to stand,’ said a letter from the Business Roundtable to German chancellor Angela Merkel seen by the Financial Times.”
“Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, has said Apple should have realised it had a tax deal that was ‘too good to be true’ and has dismissed claims that she acted retrospectively to change Irish law,” Jopson reports. “If upheld, the decision would set a precedent that undermines the legal certainty businesses need to make large-scale investments, the letter to Ms Merkel warns, adding that Brussels’ move is ‘a grievous self-inflicted wound for the European Union and its citizen.’.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Margrethe is four cents short of a 5-cent euro.
Until this idiocy is overturned, the EU is closed for new business.
Anyone who decides to set up a business in a European Union member country today is insane. — MacDailyNews, August 30, 2016
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EU demands Apple pay massive $14.5 billion in taxes plus interest – August 30, 2016
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