EU: Ireland says EC is wrong to ask Apple for €13b in taxes

According to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine, Ireland’s new Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, has said the latest European Union ruling that has ordered the Irish Government to collect over €13 billion (US$15.2 billion) in taxes owed by technology giant Apple is unjustified.

The European Commission ordered Apple to repay taxes to the Member State after ruling last year that the US technology company paid so little tax on its Ireland-based operations that it amounted to state aid.

In its legal submission against the EU’s ruling, the Irish Department of Finance claimed that it’s not only legal to levy far less tax on profits imposed by competitors, but that it’s the whole point of Ireland’s sales pitch to foreign investors.

The Irish government had said it would collect the money pending an appeal of the ruling by Apple, but Donohoe quipped it wasn’t really Dublin’s job, adding the request was not justified at all.

The money is now being deposited in escrow. The government has been vehement in its opposition to the ruling.

“We must be very careful not to endanger our reputation as advocates for free trade,” he said.

Full Content: Telegraph

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