Back Taxes On Apple: EU states demand slice of tax bonanza
The European Commission last month ordered Apple to reimburse a record 13 billion euros
The Commission said Apple paid an effective corporate tax rate of just 0.005% on its European profits in 2014; equivalent to just 50 euros for every million. PHOTO: REUTERS
BRATISLAVA:
The budget-squeezed EU countries will ask Brussels for their share of the billions in Irish back taxes demanded from tech giant Apple, officials said on Saturday. The European Commission last month ordered Apple to reimburse a record 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in unpaid taxes in Ireland. As part of its historic decision, the commission said other EU countries could also claim a slice of the 13 billion euros. “If it’s legally accurate, you can be sure that as minister of finance I will take it,” Austria’s Hans Joerg Schelling said on the sidelines of two days of talks with his EU counterparts. The commission argued that Dublin handed Apple favourable tax terms that amounted to state aid - illegal under its rules. The Commission said Apple paid an effective corporate tax rate of just 0.005% on its European profits in 2014; equivalent to just 50 euros for every million.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2016.
The budget-squeezed EU countries will ask Brussels for their share of the billions in Irish back taxes demanded from tech giant Apple, officials said on Saturday. The European Commission last month ordered Apple to reimburse a record 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in unpaid taxes in Ireland. As part of its historic decision, the commission said other EU countries could also claim a slice of the 13 billion euros. “If it’s legally accurate, you can be sure that as minister of finance I will take it,” Austria’s Hans Joerg Schelling said on the sidelines of two days of talks with his EU counterparts. The commission argued that Dublin handed Apple favourable tax terms that amounted to state aid - illegal under its rules. The Commission said Apple paid an effective corporate tax rate of just 0.005% on its European profits in 2014; equivalent to just 50 euros for every million.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2016.