Free Republic

SUMMARY Since the late '80s, Apple and other US multinationals have used Irish tax law to shield overseas profits from taxation by the EU or the US. The European Union has declared the Irish tax arrangements illegal and asserts that Apple now owes $14.5 billion in “back taxes”. The US Treasury Department believes that the EU claim is an unjustified attempt to grab tax revenue it would receive from repatriation of Apple's overseas cash. The executive arm of the European Union (EU), the European Commission , has decided that Apple received illegal tax breaks from Ireland. The EC is now...

The European Union on Tuesday said US tech giant Apple must repay a record 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion or roughly Rs. 95,910 crores) in back taxes after ruling that a series of Irish sweetheart tax deals were illegal. "The European Commission has concluded that Ireland granted undue tax benefits of up to 13 billion euros to Apple. This is illegal under EU state aid rules because it allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses. Ireland must now recover the illegal aid," a Commission statement said. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Apple's "selective treatment" in Ireland...

The European Commission will back away today from a French-led plan to tax airline tickets to pay for aid to poor countries, after fierce opposition from airlines, according to a document seen by Dow Jones Newswires.