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EU Takes Ireland To Court For Not Claiming Apple Tax Windfall (reuters.com)
Philip Blenkinsop, reporting for Reuters: The European Commission said on Wednesday it was taking Ireland to the European Court of Justice for its failure to recover up to 13 billion euros ($15.3 billion) of tax due from Apple, a move labeled as "regrettable" by Dublin. The Commission ordered the U.S. tech giant in August 2016 to pay the unpaid taxes as it ruled the firm had received illegal state aid, one of a number of deals the EU has targeted between multinationals and usually smaller EU states. "More than one year after the Commission adopted this decision, Ireland has still not recovered the money," EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said, adding that Dublin had not even sought a portion of the sum.
The answer is simple: as part of the EU treaty they signed, they can offer low tax rates overall, but their separate deal with Apple produced such low tax rates for Apple that the EU deemed it to be "state aid" to Apple, which is against EU rules. Zat help?
Apple has had major facilities in Cork, Ireland since 1980-- 37 years ago, well before the Euro or modern EU existed. This isn't some non-operating legal entity deal like some other companies, which is what makes the EU going after Apple in particular so odd. Maybe some other companies have hopped onto some kind of Ireland loophole, and maybe Apple is getting a good deal there, but they moved into Ireland when that country wasn't in very good shape and have employed a generation of Irish, so it doesn't surprise me that Ireland is friendly to them.
E pluribus unum
Brussels doesn't get the cash, the cash actually goes to Ireland and Luxemburg. Brussels are trying to ensure that everyone isn't getting screwed over by the corrupt arrangements made by these two countries. If they want to make such deals with companies then they need to leave the EU (certainly and option) but then none of these companies would have any interest whatsoever in being in either of those countries as they are really using this as a tax haven to funnel money out of the rest of the EU which would no longer be possible once they left the EU.