EU Set to Rule Apple Tax Deals With Ireland Illegal
August 29 2016 - 2:50PM
Dow Jones News
BRUSSELS—The European Union's executive body is poised to rule
as soon as Tuesday that Apple Inc.'s tax arrangements with Ireland
have breached the bloc's state-aid rules, according to people
familiar with the matter.
In its statement declaring the tax arrangements illegal, the
European Commission is expected to cite a figure range which Apple
needs to pay back to Ireland and will likely request the national
Irish authorities to calculate the exact figure.
The European Commission, the bloc's antitrust agency, opened a
formal probe into Apple's tax arrangements more than two years ago,
accusing Ireland of striking deals with the U.S. tech company in
1991 and 2007 that amounted to state aid.
The EU's decision would come days after the U.S. Treasury
Department published a white paper sharply critiquing the EU's
investigations into tax deals brokered between U.S. multinational
companies and European countries.
The U.S. has accused the EU of unfairly targeting American
companies in its investigations. American lawmakers have threatened
to invoke an obscure section of the tax code that allows
retaliatory double taxation.
Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan earlier this summer said
he expected a decision in the Apple case as soon as September.
Ireland previously has said it was confident its tax
arrangements with Apple didn't breach EU rules, and it would defend
"all aspects" of the case vigorously, in court if necessary.
The EU also is investigating Amazon.com Inc.'s tax arrangements with Luxembourg.
At issue are the tax rulings, or so-called comfort letters,
governments hand to multinationals to give clarity on how a
specific tax will be calculated. These would be illegal if they
gave selective advantages to some companies.
Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com and
Viktoria Dendrinou at viktoria.dendrinou@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 29, 2016 14:35 ET (18:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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