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EU: Apple challenges Vestagers’s $14B tax fine

By  |  September 16, 2019

Apple will launch a legal challenge on Tuesday, September 17, to a European Commission order to pay €13 billion (US$14.4 billion) in Irish back taxes in a landmark case in the EU’s crackdown on tax avoidance by multinational companies, reported Bloomberg.

The iPhone maker is expected to send a six-man delegation headed by Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri to the two-day court hearing at the Luxembourg-based General Court, the EU’s second highest court. 

In August 2016, the Commission stated that tax rulings by Ireland in 1991 and in 2007 had artificially reduced Apple’s tax burden for over two decades, effectively making it illegal State aid. 

According to Bloomberg, Apple is expected to argue that it did nothing wrong as it had followed Irish and US tax laws. It made similar arguments in a blog following an EU tax ruling a couple of years ago.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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