EU action on Apple tax decision ‘extremely disappointing’: Ireland
DUBLIN-Agence France-Presse
Ireland called the EU’s decision on Oct. 4 to refer the country to the bloc’s highest court for failing to collect 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes from tech titan Apple “extremely disappointing.”
Ireland called the EU’s decision on Oct. 4 to refer the country to the bloc’s highest court for failing to collect 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes from tech titan Apple “extremely disappointing.”
“It is extremely disappointing that the Commission has taken action at this time against Ireland,” the Irish government said in a statement, calling the decision “wholly unnecessary.” The European Commission decided to refer Ireland to the European Court of Justice after it ruled a year ago that the country must collect 13 billion euros in unlawful state aid from Apple.
The August 2016 ruling concluded that Ireland’s tax benefits to the tech company were illegal under EU rules, because they allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses.“The European Commission has decided to refer Ireland to the European Court of Justice for failing to recover from Apple illegal state aid,” the EU’s anti-trust regulator said in a statement.Ireland responded on Oct. 4 that while it had never accepted the Commission’s analysis of the Apple case, it respected EU law and was committed to ensuring swift recovery of the contested state aid.“Irish officials and experts have been engaged in intensive work to ensure that the state complies with all its recovery obligations as soon as possible, and have been in constant contact with the European Commission and Apple on all aspects of this process for over a year,” it said.
The country claimed it had made progress on the issue and was close to the establishment of an escrow fund, which would continue despite the Oct. 4 referral.
