Uncertain: US concerned EU tax hits its firms
Lew expressed concerns to Margrethe Vestager, who is leading the campaign to end excessive tax breaks by EU members
WASHINGTON:
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told Europe’s powerful competition commissioner that the EU review of tax breaks given to multinationals could have an “outsized” impact on US companies. In a meeting Thursday, Lew expressed concerns to Margrethe Vestager, who is leading the campaign to end excessive tax breaks by EU members to huge multinational firms, that US companies would be disproportionately hurt by the move, according to a Treasury account of the meeting Friday. Lew “expressed his concern that the European Commission is retroactively applying a sweeping new state aid theory with an outsized impact on US companies,” it said. In February, Lew said in a letter to Vestager and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that the US felt American companies like McDonald’s, Amazon and Apple were being singled out.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2016.
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told Europe’s powerful competition commissioner that the EU review of tax breaks given to multinationals could have an “outsized” impact on US companies. In a meeting Thursday, Lew expressed concerns to Margrethe Vestager, who is leading the campaign to end excessive tax breaks by EU members to huge multinational firms, that US companies would be disproportionately hurt by the move, according to a Treasury account of the meeting Friday. Lew “expressed his concern that the European Commission is retroactively applying a sweeping new state aid theory with an outsized impact on US companies,” it said. In February, Lew said in a letter to Vestager and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that the US felt American companies like McDonald’s, Amazon and Apple were being singled out.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2016.