The EU has found that Ireland acted illegally, not Apple. Apple should say that they have learned a lesson. EU countries are not important anymore. The BREXIT voters were right. Being a member of the EU means you have lost your vote and sovereignty.
Yeah....this is the bottom line to the ruling....Ireland never had the right to grant tax deals like this....ONLY the EU could have granted this (by EU rules).
But here’s the funny thing. Not only is Google in trouble there....but they are also in trouble in Luxembourg as well....as are fifty other American companies who got sweetheart deals through Luxembourg about a decade ago.
So, let’s look six months ahead.....some Irish dimwits decide to go for back taxes. The only option left for Google is to hope like heck that Trump is elected and immediately fixes the deal to allow US companies to bring their profits home, and then quietly pack up to leave Europe, period. Bring the jobs back to the US and give the US some portion of the profits that they should have gotten each single year.
As for the EU....they might want to ask how they can create jobs out of thin air....especially if the trade agreement is halted.
as I said above, the rules were clear when Ireland joined that it could not offer a sweetheart deal to one company (taxing it at 0.005%) not at it’s standard corporate tax rate (12.5%)