“Ireland and Apple Inc. will jointly choose investment managers for as much 15 billion euros ($17.9 billion) of the IPhone maker’s money during a tax fight with European Union regulators,” Dara Doyle reports for Bloomberg.
“In an order that reverberated across the Atlantic, the European Commission last year slapped Apple with a multibillion-euro bill, saying Ireland granted unfair deals that reduced the company’s effective corporate tax rate,” Doyle reports. “Irish authorities will place the money in an escrow account pending an appeal.”
“If the appeal, which could take as long as five years, is successful, the money will be returned to Apple,” Doyle reports. “Ireland had sought an indemnity to make sure it isn’t liable for any drop in the value of the fund while the case winds its way through the EU courts. Apple’s role in choosing the fund managers could be one compromise to help resolve that issue.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: May the EU never see a nickel of this egregiously misguided clawback.
SEE ALSO:
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
U.S. government warns EU: Do not hit Apple with a massive back tax bill – or else – August 25, 2016
The EU is about as democratic as the old GDR.
Just for the record: The EU is never going to see a nickel of this no matter how the appeal turns out. If Apple (and Ireland) win, the money will be returned to Apple. If Apple (and Ireland) lose, it will go to Ireland, which does not want it.
Since this would be a clawback of the Irish taxes that the European Commission thinks Ireland should have charged originally, pursuant to its treaty obligations, Ireland would be “reimbursed” for the underpayment. That country would much prefer to have the freedom to make its own advantageous tax deals than to receive a one-time windfall.
The EU collects its 98% of its operating revenue from three sources: (1) Import duties on non-EU merchandise (not applicable to the Apple case); (2) A value-added tax representing a percentage of each member’s own VAT collections (but not other taxes, like the income taxes at issue in the Apple case); and (3) The largest single source of revenue—a uniform percentage charged on the Gross National Income of each member country. None of these three income sources will be affected in the slightest by whether the $15B goes back to Apple or over to Ireland, so the EU has no direct financial stake in the outcome.
For the EU, this is about what they see as a matter of principle, that member states should not compete unfairly with other members by offering sweetheart deals to individual companies that are not offered to all companies under a uniformly enforced national tax policy. Individualized tax rebates are seen as the equivalent of individualized subsidies, which have been prohibited in the EU and its predecessor organizations since the mid-1950s.
I agree that this is a ripoff of Apple, but it is not a shakedown benefiting the EU financially.
I am an Irish citizen. I want pipeline Timmy’s dough. Will chug a Guinness when we get it. If that makes you angry, eat a blighted potato.