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Apple Appeals EU Tax Ruling, Says It Was a 'Convenient Target' (reuters.com)
Apple has launched a legal challenge to a record $14 billion EU tax demand, arguing that EU regulators ignored tax experts and corporate law and deliberately picked a method to maximize the penalty, senior executives said. From a report on Reuters: Apple's combative stand underlines its anger with the European Commission, which said on Aug. 30 the company's Irish tax deal was illegal state aid and ordered it to repay up to 13 billion euros ($13.8 billion) to Ireland, where Apple has its European headquarters. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, a former Danish economy minister, said Apple's Irish tax bill implied a tax rate of 0.005 percent in 2014. General Counsel Bruce Sewell and Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri outlined in an interview with Reuters at Apple's global headquarters in Cupertino the company's plans for its appeal against the Commission's ruling at Europe's second highest court. The iPhone and iPad maker was singled out because of its success, Sewell said. "Apple is not an outlier in any sense that matters to the law. Apple is a convenient target because it generates lots of headlines. It allows the commissioner to become Dane of the year for 2016," he said, referring to the title accorded to Vestager by Danish newspaper Berlingske last month.
They had to start somewhere, right Luca?
It might as well be one of the worst offenders, ie. You.
No sig today...
Every dollar or euro Apple doesn't pay has to be paid by somebody else.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Irish and US tax law are in this case both superseded by EU tax law in this case. So that argument is completely irrelevant in this case.
Remember by becoming a member of the EU the Irish agreed that their tax laws would be compliant with EU law. The commission found that Irish tax law was not compliant with EU law and as EU law is supreme Apple and Ireland are in trouble.
Sorry Apple cry me a river that you can't afford decent tax lawyers.
Arguing that one should not be singled out for misconduct on the premise that everyone else is doing it is ultimately still an admission of guilt.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
What they're doing here is trying to pretend that can legislate tax laws based on the free trade and competiton directives.
Ireland agreed to abide by the EU's rules as a condition for joining. One of those rules is an exceptionally clear one about state aid. Quoth the EU:
State aid is defined as an advantage in any form whatsoever conferred on a selective basis to undertakings by national public authorities
Now, Ireland's free to set a 0.0005% tax rate or whatever it is they do, but they're not free to give one company an advantage over the others. I cannot see any vaguely reasonable argument that selective tax rates are not a breach of state aid rules. Note that there's no exemption for taxation in that rule.
Don't like it? Well, Ireand's free to leave the club because they're a sovereign nation and then they can give state aid of whatever amount they loke to whomsoever they like.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
The EU has just recently decided to reinterpret their laws to ban the rules Ireland has had in place for 25 years, and then do so retroactively to arrive at $14B.
I'm fully in favor of the EU shutting down this obvious tax shelter scheme, but: (a) society can't function if laws are reinterpreted retroactively, and (b) it's fundamentally uncompetitive to apply this revised reinterpretation to Apple alone.