AppleInsider Staff
A European Union investigation into whether Apple's bespoke tax arrangement with the Irish government amounts to illegal state aid has been delayed again, as officials in Brussels continue to gather more information.
"We do not expect any decision until after the new year," a spokesperson for the European Commission told the Financial Times. It is the second such delay this year.
What was initially thought to be a June conclusion was first pushed back in early May.
"We will not sacrifice the rule of law or the quality of our work to speed up the process," European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said at the time, blaming the delay on the "time consuming" process of gathering information.
While Apple has long maintained that its arrangement with Ireland is entirely legal, the company is nevertheless preparing should the decision go the other way.
"If the European Commission were to conclude against Ireland, it could require Ireland to recover from the company past taxes covering a period of up to 10 years reflective of the disallowed state aid, and such amount could be material," the company wrote in a recent quarterly report.
In addition to Apple, the Commission is also investigating similar arrangements between Amazon and Luxembourg as well as Starbucks and the Netherlands.
Malcolm Owen
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
20 Comments
I bet the Irish, Dutch and Luxemburg denizens just love how their political masters have given up their sovereignty to Brussels. It's like the Eurocrats are now taking their contracted pound of flesh, and hey, everyone no doubt gets paid a bit more to be on the Committee doing the investigation. Keeping it going for as long as possible is thus very important. The worst part is you just know they are suddenly interested after all these years because the cupboard has become very bare and they need extra cash to transfer to Greece, whose population generally take snouting Other Peoples' Money to such heights they make the Brussels Eurocrats look like amateurs.
This type of stuff is nonsense, a Company reviews the tax codes, makes legal business decisions based on those codes for their share holder, and now EU union government wants to change laws. This sounds like bait and switch tactic. EU lets member states published attractive but illegal laws; waits until it attracts businesses, businesses invest locally bringing local prosperity and then EU declare foul and taxes them. I think share holders should should sue EU, and pull investments out of those countries.
"We couldn't find anything amiss or illegal so we need more time to dig into this arrangement and the tax laws. "
Denizen = resident. I was not aware it had any pejorative connotations.