(Reuters) – Antitrust regulators from the European Commission demanded that Apple to pay to Ireland to 13,000 million euros in taxes plus interest, after ruling that an agreement encouraged the manufacturer iPhone to channel their profits through Dublin violated the laws of the block.
Specifically, regulators determined that the rule prohibiting member states of the EU to give unfair advantages infringed some companies.
the huge fine, 40 times larger than the previous sum known as a result of application of the Commission to a company in a similar case could be reduced if other countries also require Apple to pay higher taxes, according to a statement issued by the executive arm of the EU.
Apple, which together with the Irish government said it would appeal the sentence, paid in Europe a tax rate of 0.005 in 2014 and 1.0 percent in 2003 for the profits from sales of its iPhone and other devices, the Commission said.
“Ireland illegal tax advantages granted to Apple, which allowed him to pay substantially less tax than other business for many years, “said EU Competition Commissioner EU Margrethe Vestager, whose decisions linked to companies, mainly US multinational, has infuriated Washington, which accuses Brussels of protectionism.
the company online selling Amazon.com and fast food group McDonald’s facing tax investigations in Luxembourg, while coffee chain StarbucksCorp was ordered to pay up to 30 million euros (33 million dollars) to the Netherlands.
the largest fine known so far is a fine of 300 million euros this year imposed the Swedish engineering company Atlas Copco for unpaid taxes in Belgium. Other companies, many of them European, which was ordered to pay charges in Belgium have disclosed no figures.
For Apple, whose profits of 18.000 billion dollars in 2015 were the highest recorded by a company in history, find some billions of dollars should not be an insurmountable problem. 13,000 million euro fine (14,500 million dollars) account for about 6 percent of the huge amount of cash the company has.
In June, Apple said it had cash, cash equivalents and securities salable by 231,500 million, of which 92.8 percent, or 214,900 million dollars was in foreign subsidiaries. He paid 2,670 million dollars in taxes in the last quarter, with a tax rate of 25.5 percent, which left a net profit of 7,800 million dollars, according to company documents.
European Commission acknowledged in 2014 to Ireland evade international tax rules by allowing Apple hid tens of billions of dollars in profits to the tax authorities, in exchange for keeping jobs. Apple and Ireland reject that accusation.
“I am deeply at odds with the Commission,” said Irish Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, said in a statement. “The decision not leave me no option to ask for Cabinet approval to file an appeal,” he said.
Ireland added that the controversial tax system used in Apple’s case no longer applies. Apple said in a statement that it is confident of winning the appeal.
“The European Commission has launched an effort to rewrite the history of Apple in Europe, ignore the tax laws of Ireland and change the international tax system in process. the case of the Commission is not about how much you pay Apple tax, is what government collects the money. it will have a profound and damaging effect on investment and job creation in Europe, “said the company.
a spokesman for the US Treasury said Tuesday in response to the opinion that the actions of European regulators could “undermine foreign investment, the business climate in Europe and the important spirit of economic partnership between the US and EU “.
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